The losses of chickens, ducks or turkeys are, in reality, more considerable, because this assessment of 50 million euthanized birds does not include the preventive slaughter of healthy animals around the hearths, specified to AFP on Tuesday the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

The epidemic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, which has been raging continuously since autumn 2021 is considered by EFSA to be "the most devastating" in Europe, in a report published on Tuesday.

The virus, detected in 37 European countries between October 2021 and September 2022, also crossed the Atlantic Ocean, spread to North America and now affects as far as Ecuador, which activated a plan in early December to protect the wild birds of the Galapagos Islands.

In Europe, the virus has not disappeared in favor of the summer in wildlife, decimating colonies of protected marine species.

And the contaminations resumed early on in the farms.

According to EFSA, between September 10 and December 2, 2022, there were 35% more contaminated farms compared to the same period last year.

France, United Kingdom and Hungary are the most affected.

In France, the number of farms affected has more than doubled in a few weeks, going from 91 outbreaks in early December to 211 on December 19, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture.

Before this new acceleration, between August and the beginning of December, more than a million poultry had been euthanized.

The previous wave of avian flu in French farms, between the end of November 2021 and mid-May 2022, had led to the euthanasia of more than 20 million poultry.

This report includes animals euthanized on infected farms, but also those slaughtered preventively in an attempt to catch the virus by surprise.

Vaccinate

Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA is "currently assessing the availability of vaccines against HPAI for poultry, and examining possible vaccination strategies".

The results of this work will be known in the second half of 2023.

On Friday, the French health agency Anses indicated that the conditions were "not met at the moment to vaccinate effectively" this winter.

The vaccine is eagerly awaited by breeders who have suffered psychologically and financially over the past year, even if the State compensates euthanized animals.

“Of the five vaccines currently available in the world, only one has a marketing authorization in Europe for chickens”, notes ANSES.

However, this authorization dates from 2006, “and the vaccine strain on which it is based has not been updated since”.

To be effective, the vaccine strategy should also concern ducks, which are the most susceptible to the virus, explained to AFP Gilles Salvat, deputy director general of ANSES for research.

Vaccines for ducks are "under research and development but they will not be marketable this winter", recalls ANSES.

France is experiencing a form of “endemization in the local fauna, and not only with migratory birds”, hitherto considered to be the main vectors of the virus, notes Mr. Salvat.

"Since the disease is setting in, we have to find a lasting solution (...) I hope that we can go faster, as was the case to find a human vaccine against Covid", pleaded Christiane Lambert, president of the majority French agricultural union FNSEA and European Copa, interviewed on Tuesday on France info.

© 2022 AFP