The number of contaminated farms is soaring and professionals of foie gras urged the health authorities on Thursday to proceed with preventive slaughter of larger ducks.
Le Monde avec AFP
A” finding of helplessness “in the face of a situation that has become” out of control “: faced with the surge in the number of farms contaminated by avian flu in the South West , professionals of the foie gras urged, Thursday January 7, the health authorities to proceed to preventive slaughter of more massive ducks.
“We are asking for a crawl space [a period without animals in the farms], we sees that the situation is out of control, that the virus is no longer under control. There is no other solution, “said Hervé Dupouy, breeder in Castelnau-Tursan and president of the FNSEA palmipeds section of the Landes.
“We depopulate [preventively slaughter the ducks] throughout the department, and then we create a crawl space and in two months, we can put animals back and start producing again “, he pleaded, protesting against the” slowness of administration “, according to him” phenomenal “.
” A virus stronger than us “
The interprofessional organization for foie gras Cifog reports, for its part, that the decision to extend preventive slaughter is expected very soon. According to its director, Marie-Pierre Pé, “we are waiting for the evolution of the strategy to fight” against the epizootic “since the depopulation strategy is not sufficient”. So far, the authorities have killed all the palmipeds within a perimeter of three kilometers around the identified outbreaks. Other poultry are also supposed to be slaughtered as soon as they have access to the outdoors.
“We have a virus which is stronger than us. There are always new outbreaks which appear “, deplores M me Pé, who draws up a” report of helplessness “in front of the” galloping inflation “of the outbreaks and suspected contamination. She estimates the number of households in France at around a hundred, concentrated in the South-West, the traditional cradle of foie gras.
The latest report from the Ministry of Agriculture, stopped at 1 st January, reported 61 confirmed outbreaks of avian influenza (commonly known as avian influenza) in farms and animal shops, including 48 in the Landes. The ministry did not comment immediately, but Minister Julien Denormandie made a trip to the Landes on Friday.
More than five million palmipeds in the process of breeding
During In winters 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, episodes of avian influenza had led to the slaughter of millions of ducks and prolonged production stoppages. To strengthen biosecurity, the industry has invested “hundreds of thousands of euros” in the Chalosse basin, in the Landes, where influenza is currently raging again, according to the director of Cifog. In total, she specifies, “more than five million” palmipeds are being farmed for their foie gras in a large production area straddling the Landes, Gers and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
According to the head of veterinary services, Loïc Evain, more than 200,000 ducks had been slaughtered in France on January 5, and an additional 400,000 palmipeds were in the process of being so. This number swells as more outbreaks are identified, notes M me Pé.
The agricultural unions La Confédération paysanne and Modef oppose the slaughter of healthy animals . But “there are not fifty ways to cut short the circulation of this virus,” says Bernard Malabirade, president of the Gers chamber of agriculture, where only one outbreak was confirmed Thursday morning according to him.