Contaminations have been increasing since the end of February in the Great West, hitherto rather spared, and particularly in Vendée.

In this department, the number of homes jumped in a few days: from 74 on Sunday to 187 at the last report on Thursday.

Currently, "we have eliminated about 1.2 million animals and it is estimated that we still have three million animals that remain to be slaughtered" in the region, the Ministry of Agriculture told the press on Friday.

“We are going to have phenomenal economic losses which are borne in whole or in part by the State. Despite everything, there will be collateral damage costs, a lack of production (of poultry, editor’s note) in the weeks to come which will be sure", predicts Christophe Labour, president of the poultry section of the agricultural union FNSEA for the Pays de la Loire region.

The extent of this crisis already exceeds that of last year, especially confined to the Southwest, country of foie gras.

Nearly 500 outbreaks had been identified in farms and 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks, slaughtered.

This year, 611 outbreaks in farms were recorded on March 10, according to the ministry.

Above all, more than four million poultry had been euthanized, most of them in the South-West, even before the new mass slaughter campaign.

- "Strategic" farms -

The "wish" of the professionals is to "be able to completely clean up the area at the end of April. We will do everything to make this happen", according to the office of the Minister of Agriculture.

A chicken farm in Crannes-en-Champagne, in Sarthe, on February 3, 2017 JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP / Archives

“The means of disposal but also of storage pending disposal (…) are gradually increased to meet the needs,” added the same source.

The area has many poultry farms, some of which are considered "strategic" because they produce animals for breeding.

There are also hatcheries, "really key for the resumption of activity in a few weeks when we have cleaned up the area", notes the ministry.

A hatchery has already been contaminated, "all the others are protected and the objective is to create a buffer zone all around the hatcheries to preserve our productive capacities for the future", he continues.

In the Southwest, affected by avian flu for the fourth time since 2015, producers are counting on these hatcheries to fill the farms emptied of their animals by the virus with ducklings.

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).

The health agency Anses is working to understand the factors of the recent outbreak of cases.

Among the tracks, the role of the “upward migrations” of wild birds carrying the virus, “the gales that there may have been in recent weeks” which favor its dissemination in the air, “probably also security flaws “, outlines the cabinet of the minister.

It will once again be necessary to "learn lessons" from the episode, anticipates the ministry, "to build a renewed roadmap" with professionals to "prevent this from happening again in the future".

After last year's crisis, it was notably decided to reduce the density of animals in the areas most at risk, such as the Vendée.

© 2022 AFP