The abruptness of the contaminated contaminations contaminated by the H5N1 virus, mainly in Vendée, imposes the slaughter of millions of poultry to “clean up the area,” said the Ministry of Agriculture.
Le Monde with AFP
Massive poultry slaughter campaigns are continuing in the West. The abruptness of the contamination of bird flu, mainly in Vendée, imposes the slaughter of millions of poultry to “clean up the area,” said Friday, March 11, the Ministry of Agriculture in the press.
Currently, about 1.2 million animals have been eliminated and it is estimated that there are still three million animals that remain “in the Great West. The magnitude of this crisis is already protruding from last year, especially circumscribed in the southwest. Nearly 500 homes had been identified in farms and 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks, slaughtered.
This year, 611 livestock homes were recorded as of March 10, according to the department. More than four million poultry had been shot before the contaminations have been multiplying since the end of February in the West, triggering a new massive slaughter campaign.
Strategic “contaminated” livestocks
“The means of disposal but also storage waiting for elimination (…) are gradually increased to meet the needs,” said the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. The situation is especially critical in Vendée where the number of households jumped in a few days: from 74 Sunday to 187 to the last assessment.
The area has many poultry farms, some of which are considered “strategic” because producing animals used for reproduction. There are also covers, “really keys for the recovery of activity in a few weeks when we have sanitized the area”, raises the department.
A hat has already been contaminated, “All the others are protected and the goal is to create a buffer zone around the hatches to preserve our productive capacities for the future,” continues this source.
Since the beginning of November 2021, while the H5N1 virus was beginning to circulate in several neighboring European countries, the government has established the obligation of confinement for all French poultry. The breeders had to invest to ensure shelter at their livestock. Without result, so for those affected by the epizootic.