A duck farm in France.

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MEIGNEUX ROMUALD / SIPA

  • The bird flu crisis is intensifying and the inter-profession of palmipeds producers feels powerless.

  • Massive preventive culls should intervene to try to stem the spread of the virus.

  • The sector has already been very affected by this epizootic between 2015 and 2017.

The bird flu crisis, which started before the holidays, is getting tougher.

The health authorities should soon extend the preventive slaughter of ducks in farms in the South-West to try to contain the spread of the virus.

“We have a virus that is stronger than us.

There are always new outbreaks that appear, ”lamented the director of the Interprofessional Committee for Fatty Liver Palmipeds, Marie-Pierre Pé, estimating now at a hundred the number of confirmed outbreaks in France, mainly in the Landes, but also the Gers and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

The latest report communicated by the Ministry of Agriculture, stopped on January 1, reported 61 confirmed cases of avian influenza (commonly known as avian influenza) in farms and animal shops, including 48 in the Landes department alone.

"Galloping inflation"

When questioned, the Ministry of Agriculture did not wish to comment immediately.

Marie-Pierre Pé spoke to AFP about a "galloping inflation" of outbreaks and suspicions of contamination.

"We are awaiting the evolution of the strategy of fight" against the epizootic, detected for the first time in a French farm at the beginning of December, "since the strategy of depopulation [localized preventive slaughtering] is not sufficient", has t she declared.

It is a "finding of helplessness in the face of a virus which goes faster than us", she added, referring in particular to the "delay" in slaughtering for lack of human resources "between Christmas and New Year".

According to his information, a "depopulation" concerning a larger perimeter should be ordered in the Landes and "reinforced measures" taken in the Gers and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a basin sheltering "more than 5 million" of palmipeds raised for their liver. fat.

400,000 palmipeds potentially targeted

The head of veterinary services Loïc Evain had indicated on Tuesday that more than 200,000 ducks had already been slaughtered in France to try to contain the epizootic, and that 400,000 additional palmipeds were in the process of being so preventively.

This crisis sends the breeders of the South-West back to the painful winters of 2015-16 and 2016-17.

During the first episode of influenza, there was no slaughter of healthy animals, but nine million poultry had not been put into production (in "crawl space" mode), recalls Marie-Pierre Pée .

During the second, 4.5 million ducks had been slaughtered and the industry had undertaken to invest to strengthen biosecurity, in order to try to avoid the repetition of the scenario.

These investments can be counted "in hundreds of thousands of euros" in the Chalosse basin, in the Landes, where avian influenza is currently raging again.

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