In one week, 400,000 additional poultry were killed. At the end of January, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that 2.5 million animals had been slaughtered to stem the seasonal epizootic of avian influenza, since the first cases detected at the end of November in a laying hen farm located in Warhem (Nord). Two months later, there are now nearly three million poultry sacrificed, the ministry announced on Tuesday, February 1. Franceinfo returns in five questions to this new epidemic, the fourth in France since 2015.
1How many households are counted?
The first case of this epidemic highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) on French territory was discovered in a laying hen farm located in Warhem (Nord) on 26 November. The epidemic has since continued to spread, first in the North, where five cases were identified on December 9, then in the rest of the territory. On December 19, a first case was, for example, confirmed in a duck farm in the Landes.
At the end of the year, the ministry announced that“about 600,000 to 650,000” poultry had been slaughtered. In mid-January, he listed more than 150 farms affected throughout the country: 94 farms in the Landes, 28 in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 16 in the Gers, eight in the North, two in the Vendée and in the Hautes-Pyrénées and one in the Lot-et-Garonne. As of January 31, the outbreak has spread even further, with 328 households (including 218 in the Landes), according to the Ministry of Agriculture. During the last epizootic episode, between autumn 2020 and spring 2021, 492 outbreaks had been identified.
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2How is this new epidemic explained?
HPAI has a seasonal character. Transported by migratory birds from Asia, it usually begins to develop in October in Europe and continues until April. “The French territory is concerned by these migrations (…) The peak of migratory arrivals in France often takes place in November”, warned in November 2020 the National Office for Biodiversity (OFB) to the animal health epidemiological surveillance platform (ESA). Vigilance is therefore necessary until the departure of these birds “in prenuptial migration towards the North-East, in late winter, early spring”added the OFB.
This virus, which resists the cold of winter, can spread through direct contact with secretions or via water and food. However, it is not dangerous for humans. “The consumption of meat, foie gras and eggs – and more generally of any poultry-based food product – does not present any risk to humans”recalls the Ministry of Agriculture.
3What measures are taken to stop it?
As of November 5, three weeks before the first case in the Nord department, and faced with the spread in neighboring countries, the Ministry of Agriculture had set the risk of bird flu to “high”. A threshold that required all farmers to strictly confine their poultry, i.e. a “appropriate sheltering of poultry on commercial farms and confinement or netting in barnyards”explains the ministry. A choice criticized by two unions, the Peasant Confederation and the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Modef), because it threatens open-air farms and has “not able to avoid a fourth crisis in six years”, they reported, in mid-January, in a joint press release. Their appeal filed with the Council of State to suspend the decrees on avian flu was rejected on December 24.
Julien Denormandie, the Minister of Agriculture, defended this protective measure on January 4, ensuring that it was “necessary”.
“If we had not taken these measures, the situation I am describing to you today would be much more dramatic.”
Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agricultureat a press conference on January 4
He underlined that France counted “35% fewer farms affected” compared to the previous year. But on the ground, the results of these restrictions are pending. “Biosecurity in breeding is like barrier gestures with the Covid, there are airlocks, disinfection, new habits. But no matter how much we take all the necessary precautions, it ends up affecting you”deplores to AFP Jean-Pierre Dubroca, breeder in Buanes (Landes).
In addition to this confinement, the French government decided on January 20 to extend preventive culling in an area mainly covering the south of the Landes, but also the west of the Gers and the north of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, so that the virus no longer finds medium on which to multiply.
4Why is vaccination a problem?
As a way out of the Covid-19 crisis, vaccination of poultry is one of the solutions desired by most players in the sector. Julien Denormandie announced, at the beginning of January, the start, soon, of an experimental phase of “two vaccines, including one from a laboratory in New Aquitaine”. Marie-Pierre Pé, director of the Interprofessional Committee for Foie Gras Waterfowl (Cigof), believes, in Le Monde (article subscribers), “essential to advance the file of the vaccination of animals against avian influenza (…) otherwise the poultry industry will remain threatened by this virus.” But the future of this solution passes through Brussels since to date, “no vaccine suitable for birds of the family Anatidae (palmipeds) is authorized by the European Commission”recalls the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We are the first European country to put (that) in place. Then we will have to obtain approval at European level and I will therefore have to manage to convince the other Member States of the interest of vaccination”said Julien Denormandie. “JI prefer vaccinated poultry to confined poultry”asserts for his part World Sylvie Colas, farmer in Lectoure (Gers) and spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne in this department.
“It’s our lifeline. We have to move quickly in the experiments and that it follows at European level.”
Jean-Pierre Dubroca, breeder in the Landesat AFP
“The European Union is presided over by France [depuis le 1er janvier et pour six mois]so we hope that our Minister of Agriculture will bring this to the level of Europe so that the vaccination is accepted”explains to franceinfo Hervé Dupouy, duck breeder and representative of the FDSEA Landes waterfowl section.
5Is France the only country affected?
European neighbors are not spared. According to figures published on January 31 by the French platform for epidemiological surveillance in animal health (ESA), 924 outbreaks of avian influenza were recorded in farms in 33 European countries. Italy is the country with the highest number of outbreaks detected (307), with 18 million poultry slaughtered since October, particularly in the Po plain (north of the country), which is home to very large farms of turkeys and hens.
Third European country affected after Italy and France, Hungary, located on the corridor of migratory birds which follows the Danube, has 113 outbreaks of avian flu. The ESA platform also lists 80 in Poland, 56 in the United Kingdom, 55 in Germany, 15 in the Czech Republic and 16 in the Netherlands.