Poultry from around a hundred municipalities in the South-West will have to be slaughtered as a preventive measure against avian flu.

The operators do not hide their anger and their disappointments after several years plagued by the virus, when 40,000 ducks had already been killed during a previous preventive cull. 

The virus is not transmissible to humans, but it is highly dangerous for poultry.

Faced with the resurgence of avian influenza, the authorities have ordered the preventive slaughter of farmed poultry in around a hundred municipalities, mainly in the Landes but also in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in order to control the spread.

A previous decree, dated December 23, had already ordered preventive slaughter in 11 municipalities in the Landes.

40,000 ducks had to be slaughtered.

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"Pissed off" breeders

A "preventive slaughter is ordered in order to accelerate the control of the epizootic", indicates the decree.

The text notably highlights "the high density of poultry farms in the Landes department".

Serge Mora, president of the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Modef) in the Landes, protests: "the breeders are really upset. Some are, psychologically, completely slaughtered. This is the third time in five years that poultry must be slaughtered. The breeder who sees his animals in perfect health understands badly, if at all, that one comes to slaughter animals like that. "

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Expected compensation

A hundred operators demonstrated last Saturday to express their anger at these difficult measures.

Avian flu has been detected in 18 French outbreaks this year.

The influenza episode began in mid-November, due to the migrations of wild birds in the South.

Serge Mora fears that these repeated warning shots will push some producers to throw in the towel and change activity.

Operators are now waiting to know the terms of their compensation.