Why does the Covid-19 so infiltrate slaughterhouses?

From our special correspondent in Orleans,

The place is relatively easy to find from the Leclerc Gulliver size in Fleury-les-Aubrais. For those who expected a sprawling monster with dozens of buildings scattered everywhere, the Tradival slaughterhouse in the suburbs of Orleans seems almost curled up on itself, when viewed from the main entrance. It must be said that the place is calm. The company had no choice but to shut down the engines after the discovery of a source of contamination in the cutting workshop, 54 positive employees Monday evening. The bravest arrive by bike on the bike path roughly marked with green paint on the sidewalk, but at the entrance, it is especially the ball of cars to get tested.

# COVID19 / Cluster in the Tradival slaughterhouse, in Fleury-les-Aubrais (Loiret): 54 people have now tested positive, according to the ARS. It's 20 more.

"We try to be flawless on barrier gestures"

All employees must take the dreaded swab test to attack the nasal cavity. Some, often the youngest, play proudly. "No stress for me, I'm not afraid of dying," breathes Jordan, three months of work "on the bikes". In the world of slaughterhouses, we do not cross more than that between the different sectors of activity. Cutting with cutting, salting with salting, and so on. So nobody is too much conversation in the small queue of twenty people who formed inside the enclosure, where a team of CHR of Orleans take care of carrying out the exams. Three nurses who weren't going to dawdle much. By the end of the day, they will have performed more than 150 tests. “It was moving fast, so we added a little more, jokes Anne Gravier, coordinator of the Covid-19 mobile teams. People are in demand, they are impatiently awaiting screening. ”

"The people are fairly calm," advises Michel-Archange, recruited in December. It must be recognized that the company has taken a lot of measures since the start of the epidemic to protect us. We have gloves, masks, hydroalcoholic gel, I don't understand how the virus got in. I think someone caught it outside, it's not possible otherwise. The man still took some precautions. Since he learned that the epidemic was raging in Tradival, he preferred to stay with his brother, currently on the move, so as not to risk infecting his family. Christophe was not as forward-looking, despite the baby seat in his car. “I work on the preparation of orders. We have all the necessary equipment, we put on full suits, we try to be flawless on barrier gestures. Afterwards, we cannot know how people live outside. ” He will return to his pregnant wife to await the verdict. An SMS if it is negative, a call from the infectious diseases department of the hospital if it is positive. Behind him, a civil protection car brings the first batch of tests to the infectious diseases department of the CHR.

The country is confronted with 25 foci of contamination among which 3 slaughterhouses. The phenomenon is global: Australia, Germany, Brazil, Spain and the United States ⤵️ #LInfoduVrai #COVID ー 19 pic.twitter.com/Y6GuX59RzE

400 employees and subcontractors screened before Tuesday evening

We feel in the general tone of the speech the desire to save the company, since it is still the best way to avoid problems. We would have asked the site director for his opinion, but he has not been found since the start of the crisis, while Sicarev, the parent company, has turned off all the lights after a slightly too optimistic intervention by the group's marketing manager among our colleagues. from La République du Center , a few hours before the revelation of this new cluster. “Faced with the health risks caused by the Covid-19, we do not intend to lower our guard. When the 350 employees arrive at work, the safety manager takes their temperature. […] We have limited crossings, fitted out break rooms, production lines with Plexiglas and banners ”.

The ARS of the department did not wish to load the boat either, citing "a protocol that seems to have been respected", despite a loaded liability. The processing workshop, for example, no longer transforms anything since the detection last November of a possible listeria infection on pigs' tongues. Despite several disinfection operations, the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Loiret Populations (DDPP), present on site, has still not authorized the activity to resume. "It is a slaughterhouse that is characterized by its obsolescence," said M.Pouëssel, the Prefect of the region. A modernization plan of 15 million euros had also been approved by the Prefecture a few days before the start of confinement.

The curse of slaughterhouses

It would seem, however, that the thesis of the ugly duckling does not hold, given the epidemic in the epidemic. In addition to the French examples, several dozen slaughterhouses around the world have now been infiltrated by this damn virus. In Germany, where the Covid-19 has been much better controlled, an outbreak has recently started in the canton of Segeberg with more than 260 cases of contamination. In the United States, 115 slaughterhouses have been officially affected since the end of March, and 30 people have died, including 4 officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, according to the organization representing government employees in the country.

#Coronavirus outbreak in a slaughterhouse in Loiret: "we are shoulder to shoulder in the workshop, less than a meter away", says an employee of Tradivalhttps: //t.co/6Mng0Rb1pr pic.twitter.com/YeX1WH4mQZ

In his explanations, the US Department of Health mentioned the difficulty of maintaining physical distance due to the size of the workshops and the production principle, when the temperature, almost systematically below ten degrees, would favor the spread of the virus by aerosols. "It is certain that we are sidelined on the lines otherwise we would be forced to put our heads in the machine, testify Isabelle and Adeline, the only two voices apart from the nails at the entrance to Tradival. They say they suffer from headaches and blame the company for not having stopped the costs by Wednesday, when the first cases were known. I hope we didn't get this thing. We put the meats in a tray, it's pretty much okay, but those who cut up the carcass are not the same story ”.

"We couldn't have been much more reactive"

Cutting or boning, the two best-paid jobs in the slaughterhouse, according to several employees, are also the most demanding and the most tiring. It is often foreign workers who stick to it, in France as in Germany, where the contamination of slaughterhouses is part of the living quarters of posted workers, often cramped and overcrowded. "Hard-pressed people who are used to having colds or colds in their work environment and who do not consult more than that", summarizes Thierry Prazuck, head of infectious diseases at the CHR of Orleans, who saw a lot of workers from Eastern Europe among the first positive cases. This data further complicates the task of tracing contacts.

Germany wants to "clean up" in the slaughterhouses, nests at # Covid19. Over 800 employees have been infected with the virus. Berlin plans to review the living conditions and wages of seasonal workers in the sectorhttps: //t.co/56ekFSAcHR pic.twitter.com/qumR1XfqSM

The specialist believes, however, that his teams could hardly have been faster in managing contacts. The collection center, located in Algeco outside the hospital, ran all Sunday to test the famous contacts of the first 22 positive employees. "We were warned at noon on Friday and at 3 p.m. we were on site," says Anne Gravier. We couldn't have been much more reactive, and that applies to all links in the chain, including the company which quickly became aware of this. ”

"No alert on meat contamination"

The ARS for its part wanted to be reassuring about a hypothetical contamination of food. “We have had no alert on contamination by meat products, says Laurent Habert, its general manager. We are on direct contamination between humans ”. Right in front of Tradival, the slaughterhouse butcher's shop, which sells directly to individuals, nevertheless takes great care to warn us: "We have nothing to do with them, we depend on another slaughterhouse, our meat does not it's not from there, there is no problem ”.

Yannick, the last employee we meet, is a little late to get tested. But he mostly came to disinfect the fridges and load the meat that remains in the trucks and deliver it to the big customers of the day. "Otherwise, it gets lost". Tradival will not be able to reopen before May 25, like all day nurseries, schools, and colleges in the city, if the outbreak is under control. We are far from it.

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Coronavirus in Orléans: All employees of a slaughterhouse where a "cluster" has appeared will be detected by Tuesday

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