"It's horrible": Marc Fesneau meets breeders exhausted by avian flu

Charles Guyard (on site), edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 7:50 p.m., December 22, 2022

This is probably the worst episode of bird flu in Europe: more than 50 million poultry have been decimated this year.

And France pays a heavy price, since nearly half of these animals were in France.

In Vendée, one of the departments where the most poultry is produced, the toll is heavy.

It is in this department, in La Roche-sur-Yon, that the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, went this Thursday to meet the players in the sector, at the end of their tether. 

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“There is a lot of pain”

About thirty breeders were gathered in front of the prefecture, despite the rain, for the arrival of the minister.

All of them suffered the full brunt of the avian flu.

Éric Coutant, vice-president of the Vendée Chamber of Agriculture, explains the situation.

"You go to see your animals in the evening, everything is fine and the next morning, you arrive and a large part of the herd has already been decimated. It's extremely violent," he says.

Laurent, a producer of laying hens in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, was heavily affected by the disease last March.

"In two days, the building was completely contaminated, and three days later, there was no longer a living hen. I can tell you that when you enter a building and you see your 30,000 dead hens, it's is awful."

A real "trauma" for breeders.

“There is a lot of suffering, psychological wear and tear,” explains Éric Coutant.

Faced with the scale of the epidemic, some are giving up.

"We also have breeders who no longer have the strength to continue producing poultry."

The sector awaits decisions from the government 

Today, Éric Coutant wants a concrete solution.

"There are vaccines that exist, at some point you have to deploy them. It's still been going on for three years. After three years, the patience of breeders begins to wear thin."

Without making decisions, breeders are afraid of the arrival of competition, in particular "Polish chicken", underlines the vice-president of Vendée. 

He is not alone.

Guy Hervé, breeder in Deux-Sèvres, wants this famous vaccine.

"There, we are destroying all professions, all poultry. Ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl, laying hens... For salmonella, there are already vaccines in place. So vaccinating animals, this wouldn't be a problem, we just need the vaccine."

With this much-awaited trip by the minister, the sector hopes to be heard.

"There is an issue of food sovereignty which is clearly posed on the question of poultry production. We are really waiting for the minister to make a trip in which he comes with a binder full of decisions".