Nearly 4.18 million poultry have been slaughtered since the start of the crisis to curb avian flu in France, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday.

The epizootic “tends to stabilize in the Southwest”, also explains the ministry in a press release.

A “favorable epidemiological evolution” which, “backed by the end of the planned depopulation, makes it possible to envisage the reinstatement of animals”.

Faced with the sudden acceleration of the epizootic in the south-west of France, the French government decided on January 20 to increase preventive slaughter in an area mainly covering the south of the Landes, but also the west of the Gers and the north Pyrénées-Atlantiques, so that the virus no longer finds a medium on which to multiply.

“The depopulation programmed by these measures is now complete”, indicates the ministry.

In total more than 4 million poultry were slaughtered, including 3.44 million in the Southwest.

The placement of young poultry will be possible at the end of March

The placement of young poultry, such as chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, or waterfowl, can only take place after two consecutive periods "to ensure that the conditions are met".

First, a period of 30 days following the last identified outbreak in the area, during which cleaning and disinfection will be carried out on the farms.

Then, an “additional crawl space period of at least 3 weeks”.

This brings the re-authorization of the placement of young poultry "from March 29", according to the ministry.

These will be subject to “enhanced surveillance” for another three weeks.

Avian influenza has a seasonal character.

Transported by migrating birds from Asia, it usually begins to develop in October in Europe and continues until April.

This is the fourth episode of avian flu that has affected France - and particularly the South West - since 2015. The last one, last winter, led to the slaughter of more than 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks .

These repeated crises generate considerable costs for professionals (production stoppages, closure of export markets) and the State (compensation for slaughtered animals and resulting economic losses).

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Avian flu: Crawl space and one million animals to be slaughtered in the South West

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