The level of risk linked to avian influenza, avian influenza, will increase on Sunday from “negligible” to “moderate” in France. Farmers will therefore have to shelter poultry in risk areas and test them if an outbreak is detected less than 20 kilometers from their farm.
“For two weeks, we have seen a deterioration in the situation” which had improved in recent months, it was argued on Friday at the Ministry of Agriculture. The health authorities have detected 18 outbreaks in livestock in 11 departments: Somme, Seine-Maritime, Meuse, Indre-et-Loire, Ain, Sarthe, Manche, Ille-et-Vilaine, Morbihan, Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique.
“There is really a desire not to reproduce the crisis of last year”, underlines the ministry. This episode of avian flu of unprecedented magnitude had led to the slaughter of 16 million poultry from November 2021 to June 2022, including 11 million in the Great West, with a total of 1,378 farms affected by the virus.
“Moderate” risk
The level of risk was downgraded on June 7 to “negligible” but outbreaks have since appeared. Hundreds of wild birds have also been found dead since the beginning of summer on the west coast, infected with avian influenza.
As the “risky period” of the migration of wild birds approaches, it has therefore been “decided to raise the level of risk from ”negligible” to ”moderate” throughout France” from of Sunday, a decree to be published Saturday in the Official Journal, explains the ministry.
Concretely, measures will have to be taken, such as sheltering poultry in risk areas – wetlands located on the migration corridors of wild birds –, banning “gatherings of birds” in these areas, such as racing pigeon competitions, or compulsory vaccination in zoos for birds that cannot be confined or protected under netting. Hunting remains authorized “but under conditions”, specifies the ministry.
Lower compensation in the event of non-compliance with the measures
“Compared to previous years, we want to go further to avoid an epidemic peak at all costs,” he underlines. Farmers will have to carry out tests, at their own expense, once a week and before any transport of animals, if their farm is located between 0 and 20 km from an outbreak.
Controls will be carried out with, as a result, a reduction in compensation in the event of non-compliance with these measures. The measures were taken in consultation with the professionals, it is underlined at the ministry. But the Peasant Confederation and the Movement for the Defense of Family Farmers (Modef) have “dissociated themselves from the roadmap” of the government.
“Absurd regulations”
“The episode of avian influenza last year showed us that open-air breeding is not responsible for the epidemic”, criticize these two agricultural unions. However, “once again, prohibiting the outdoors is the only solution found by the Ministry of Agriculture to make people believe that it is trying to stem an epidemic of avian influenza that has become uncontrollable”, they add.
According to them, “no measure is in force to act on the main factors of the spread of the virus”, namely “the densities in the specialized breeding areas” or even “the multiplicity of transport of animals and personnel, who are responsible for the gradual spread of avian influenza”.
The Confédération paysanne and the Modef say they are “mobilized” against “these absurd regulations”, with a fear: “the disappearance of our profession of breeders and breeders in the open air”. “It is not a total confinement of the animals”, assures the ministry, however, “the conditions of sheltering have been adapted according to the modes of production. »