Since November, France has identified more than 1,300 outbreaks of avian influenza in farms, leading to the slaughter of almost 20 million poultry on the territory.
Article written by
Published
Reading time : 1 min.
More than 1,000 cases have been identified in less than a year. A case of bird flu was detected in Feuillères (Somme) in a turkey farm, leading to the slaughter of some 8,000 turkeys present on the farm, the Somme prefecture announced on Monday 1 August.
“A first outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza” was confirmed on Saturday in this Somme farm, the prefecture said in a press release, specifying that to avoid any risk of spreading the virus to other farms, “regulated protection and surveillance zones have been set up within a radius of 3 to 10 km”. In these areas, “all places where poultry and captive birds are kept are subject to specific requirements”including the prohibition of “movements of poultry and captive birds”.
Since November, France has identified more than 1,300 outbreaks of avian influenza in farms, leading to the slaughter of almost 20 million poultry on the territory. In comparison, during the last episode of avian flu in 2020/2021, the country had nearly 500 outbreaks and 3.5 million poultry were slaughtered. Avian influenza is seasonal because the virus is transmitted by migrating birds from Asia. The epizootic generally begins to develop in October in Europe and continues until April.