Jean-Luc Guérin admits that the vaccine cannot guarantee 100% that there will be no more outbreaks of infection since only farmed ducks can be treated. But he says he is “confident that we should not have large epizootic waves”.
An unprecedented vaccination campaign begins in France. More than 60 million ducks will receive a preventive dose against avian flu. This campaign is obligatory to avoid the massive slaughters that France has experienced in recent months (more than 10 million web-footed birds killed for health reasons). “The objective is to considerably reduce the risk of mass slaughter,” explains Jean-Luc Guérin, professor at the national veterinary school of Toulouse and laboratory director at Inrae.
>> Avian flu: vaccination starts with still many questions for some breeders
franceinfo: What will be the effects of such a vaccination campaign on ducks?
Jean-Luc Guérin: Vaccination should significantly reduce the risk of infection. Afterwards, we know very well that no vaccine can guarantee 100% effectiveness. What we are looking for is to break the epidemic waves that we have experienced in previous years, to considerably lower the viral load of possibly infected animals to break the infection at the scale of a herd and especially from one herd to another.
“What we know today, unfortunately from experience for several years, is that it is the duck which plays a major epidemiological role, including with regard to other poultry species such as chickens or turkeys.”
Jean-Luc Guérin, laboratory director at INRAEat franceinfo
Is that why we only vaccinate ducks and not other poultry?
This is why we effectively vaccinate all the ducks and this is why France is in a unique position on a European and international scale, since we are ultimately the only major producer-exporting country to embark on this vaccination campaign. This is because we have a very large breeding of waterflies which raises specific questions at the epidemiological level.
Are we fairly certain that this will help avoid massive slaughters in the months to come?
The objective is to considerably reduce the risk of mass slaughter. We cannot exclude the possibility of occasional outbreaks of direct introduction by wildlife, since obviously the wildlife reservoir is not accessible to vaccination. So we cannot certify 100% that we will not have a few homes. But on the other hand, we are confident that we should not have large epizootic waves and therefore massive preventive culls. The avian flu virus is currently still circulating across Europe in wildlife and we have had very regular defections in recent days, particularly in Northern Europe, possibly a sign of circulation in migration corridors. which will start to load. So the risk of reintroduction into the professional poultry sector still exists.