215 poultry farms in Deux-Sèvres will be depopulated in order to “protect” “breeding sites” in the department from contamination by avian flu, the Deux-Sèvres prefecture announced on Tuesday.
42 outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been confirmed in Deux-Sèvres since the arrival of the virus in this department in mid-February and one million poultry have been slaughtered there, according to the prefecture, which ensures that “the progression of the epidemic remains under control” but that it is “continuing”.
“A kind of sanitary cordon”
The number of slaughters will increase because the prefecture launched in mid-April a second phase of “depopulation” of farms in order to “give priority to the protection of breeding sites”, numerous in this department and which provide young poultry farms all over France.
“We make a kind of cordon sanitaire around sensitive sites in which we slaughter farms that are healthy, in which there have been no detected cases, to be sure that there is not an outbreak around of a hatchery or breeding site”, explained the prefect Emmanuelle Dubée. 215 farms are involved in this second phase. The first had led to slaughter in 41 farms.
“Guaranteeing the future of the sector”
For Emmanuelle Dubée, “this measure is necessary to guarantee the future of the sector” and the sustainability of the poultry farming activity. This is to ensure that “all farms can have new little chicks and ducklings to be able to start again in good conditions”.
“It’s obviously hard to hear for the breeders concerned even if they are partly well compensated,” she conceded.
Already 10 million poultry slaughtered
The Vendée and its neighboring departments, such as Deux-Sèvres, include 836 households out of the 1,300 confirmed in breeding in France since this winter, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture. At the end of March, more than ten million poultry had been slaughtered in France.
The epizootic is also spreading in Dordogne, where 34 outbreaks have already been confirmed since the appearance of the virus less than three weeks ago and where 240,000 poultry have been slaughtered, according to the prefecture. The virus is also present in the neighboring departments of Lot (35 outbreaks), Lot-et-Garonne (4), Corrèze (3) and Haute-Vienne (1).
On the other hand, the situation has stabilized in the first large breeding area affected this winter, the south-west (Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gers, Hautes-Pyrénées).