This is perhaps a turning point in the management in France of the avian influenza epizootic, which for years has caused significant mortality among wild birds and domestic poultry. Monday October 2, from 8 a.m., 3,500 ducklings from Eric Dumas’ farm in Horsarrieu, in the Landes, will kick off a massive vaccination campaign, aiming to immunize tens of millions of ducks and protect other species against the avian influenza virus. To mark this moment, the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, will make the trip.
Vaccination has just been made compulsory for all French waterfowl farms from 250 animals. A two-step procedure: a first injection on ducklings aged 10 days and a booster at 28 days. “The first week, 650,000 ducklings will be vaccinated, including 524,000 in the South-West”says Marie-Pierre Pé, director of the Interprofessional Committee for Foie Gras Palmipeds (Cifog).
To catch the animals and sting them at the base of the neck, Eric Dumas, president of Cifog, requested the support of two employees from an external service provider. Julien Mora, whose 900 ducks will also be vaccinated on Monday, will also be able to count on reinforcement: the representative of the Movement for the Defense of Family Operators (Modef) of Landes, based in Mugron, will be accompanied by his parents to carry out the operation.
A campaign estimated at 100 million euros
A transition period is thus opening on farms, which will see vaccinated ducks coexist with older counterparts who will not be vaccinated. We will have to wait a few months to have fully vaccinated populations of waterflies. By the summer of 2024, the profession estimates that 64 million ducks will be affected. The first order for 80 million vaccines placed with the German laboratory Boehringer Ingelheim will therefore not be enough and the government must launch another call for tenders for 60 million doses. The French laboratory Ceva, which has developed a messenger RNA vaccine against avian influenza, with effectiveness equivalent to the German product, hopes to take advantage of this to get back into the race.
The State covers 80% of the cost of this campaign, estimated at nearly 100 million euros. An envelope which covers the costs of the injection but also surveillance and monitoring: monthly visit by a veterinarian to randomly test 60 ducks in each farm, weekly monitoring with swabs on dead animals and, once in the life of each webfoot, a serological test to check that the virus is not circulating and that the animal has been vaccinated.
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