Twenty-six homes were identified by the Ministry of Agriculture in farms, particularly in the North and the Southwest, since a first case identified at the end of November.
Le Monde with AFP
The interim figures of the Ministry of Agriculture, consulted by the France-Presse agency, Friday, December 31, report “approximately 600,000 to 650,000” poultry shot in France since the first case of bird flu detected in a breeding at the end of November.
The ministry lists twenty-six homes of the virus in farms, Fifteen cases in wild fauna and three cases in low-courses . Most of the cases now focuses in northern France and reached southwestern.
“Since December 16, where a first H5N1 type focus has been confirmed in the southwest, in a duck breeding ready to gover from the municipality of Manciet, in the Gers, twenty-two new homes were Identified in the Atlantic Pyrenees, Gers and Landes, “reported the department in a statement Thursday night. “The affected farms were each time depopulated, then disinfected,” he added.
Slaughter often preventive
France, as many European countries, is once again affected this winter by highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, conveyed by migratory birds. Last year, the epizootic had been at the root of nearly five hundred livestock households and resulted in the often preventive slaughter of about 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks.
This year, the virus has been identified for the first time on November 26 in the northern department, in the municipality of Warhem, where 160,000 laying hens were raised in building. Additional restrictions are expected to limit contagion “in a dense farming zone of the southwest” whose extent should be specified by prefectural decrees.
In this perimeter, the breeders have the prohibition to welcome new chicks or ducklings “until January 7th”. “These measures may be prolonged, given the evolution of the health situation,” warns the department.