Illustration of a traditional breeding and fattening farm for geese and ducks.

-

MEIGNEUX ROMUALD / SIPA

Bird flu continues to wreak havoc in the South West.

A second duck farm was contaminated with "highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8" in the Landes department where "the disease is progressing", the prefecture announced on Thursday.

This new outbreak, identified in the town of Saint-Geours de Maremne, was confirmed by the national reference laboratory of ANSES (National Health Security Agency), said the prefecture in a press release.

A first farm affected by avian flu

This town is located in the south of the department, not far from Bénesse-Maremne, where a first case had been confirmed at the beginning of the week in another farm whose 6,000 ducks had been slaughtered.

To try to isolate the progression of the virus, not transmissible to humans, the prefecture has placed around forty municipalities in a "protection zone".

This return of avian influenza (commonly known as avian flu) sends duck farmers in the South-West back to the crises of the winters of 2015/16 and 2016/17, when epizootics of this type had led to massive slaughterings, even though the The sector is already hard hit by the Covid-19 epidemic, which has closed restaurants and reduced festive occasions.

Society

Landes: Some 6,000 ducks slaughtered in a farm contaminated by avian flu

Planet

Loire-Atlantique: Very strong suspicion of avian flu in a wild goose, found in Pornichet

  • Society

  • breeder

  • France

  • Ducks

  • Animals

  • Avian Flu