This episode of avian flu is the most severe that France has ever known. Since the first case recorded in the north of France at the end of November, 10 million poultry have been slaughtered to stem the epizootic, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Wednesday March 23. Nearly half were in the Pays de la Loire region, the second largest production area for French poultry after Brittany, where two cases have also recently been identified.
In total, nearly 1,000 farms have been infected with the virus, including at least 450 in Vendée, where the authorities are in the process of emptying poultry farms via mass slaughter of sick but also healthy animals, preventively. In a few weeks, the toll in this hitherto unscathed department has become much heavier than that of Landes (231), a production area regularly affected since 2015. The number of cases is also increasing in the departments bordering Vendée: 70 in Loire-Atlantique, 58 in Maine-et-Loire.
Ordinarily, crises linked to avian influenza remain generally confined to the South-West, in particular to duck farms intended for the production of foie gras. Last year, nearly 500 outbreaks were recorded in farms and 3.5 million animals, mainly ducks, were slaughtered. The heavy toll this year is attributed to the unprecedented outbreak of cases in the Pays de la Loire region.
According to the latest bulletin from the French animal health epidemiological surveillance platform (ESA), the farms affected are “principally” from “web-footed farms (fat or lean) but a wide variety of production types are affected: mule ducks, Peking ducks, Muscovy ducks, turkeys, quails, pheasants, broilers, laying hens. Breeding farms are also affected “.