Paris (AFP)

A "finding of helplessness" in front of a situation which has become "out of control": faced with the surge in the number of farms contaminated by avian flu in the South-West, foie gras professionals urged the health authorities on Thursday to proceed with more massive preventive slaughter of ducks.

"We are asking for a crawl space (a period without animals in the farms, Editor's note), we see that the situation is out of control, that we no longer control the virus. There is no other solution," a declared to AFP Hervé Dupouy, breeder in Castelnau-Tursan and president of the FNSEA palmipeds section of the Landes.

"We depopulate (preventively slaughter ducks, Editor's note) throughout the department, and after we make a crawl space and in two months, we can put animals back and start producing again," he pleaded, pleading against the "slowness of the administration", according to him "phenomenal".

The interprofessional organization of foie gras Cifog reports that the decision to extend preventive slaughter is expected very soon.

According to its director, Marie-Pierre Pé, "we are waiting for the evolution of the strategy to fight" against the epizootic "since the depopulation strategy is not sufficient".

So far, the authorities have killed all the palmipeds within a three-kilometer area around the identified outbreaks.

Other poultry are also supposed to be slaughtered as soon as they have access to the outdoors.

She estimates the number of households in France at around a hundred, concentrated in the southwest, the traditional cradle of foie gras.

The latest report from the Ministry of Agriculture, stopped on January 1, reported 61 confirmed outbreaks of avian influenza (commonly known as bird flu) in farms and animal shops, including 48 in the Landes.

The ministry did not comment immediately, but Minister Julien Denormandie made a trip to the Landes on Friday.

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During the winters of 2015-16 and 2016-17, episodes of avian influenza led to the slaughter of millions of ducks and prolonged production stoppages.

To strengthen biosecurity, the industry has invested "hundreds of thousands of euros" in the Chalosse basin, in the Landes, where influenza is currently raging again, according to the director of Cifog.

In total, she says, "more than 5 million" palmipeds are being farmed for their foie gras in a large production area straddling the Landes, Gers and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

According to the head of veterinary services Loïc Evain, more than 200,000 ducks had been slaughtered in France as of January 5, and an additional 400,000 palmipeds were in the process of being so.

This number swells as outbreaks are identified, notes Ms. Pé.

The agricultural unions Confédération paysanne and Modef oppose the slaughter of healthy animals.

But "there are not fifty ways to cut short the circulation of this virus," told AFP Bernard Malabirade, president of the chamber of agriculture of Gers, where only one outbreak was confirmed Thursday morning according to him.

"We are in war mode against this virus."

At the same time, Cifog "asks to reactivate the aid system put in place in 2017", including aid for hatcheries, breeders, but also processing companies "which will be in lack of raw material".

The H5N8 strain of avian influenza, which is also rife elsewhere in Europe, was spotted for the first time in a farm in France in early December, triggering in particular an embargo by China against French poultry.

France hopes to conclude an agreement soon to be able to export to China from the territories that have remained free.

The imperative is "to manage this crisis quickly and well, including through radical measures, to show [to importing countries] how our health system is effective and helps to contain the disease", emphasized Wednesday Isabelle Chmitelin, the Managing Director of Chambers of Agriculture France.

myl-ngu-ff-dmc / soe / LyS

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