To avoid any risk of spreading the avian influenza virus, a 3 -kilometer protection area and a 10 -kilometer surveillance area around the farm have also been established since Saturday.
Le Monde with AFP
Some thirty-six thousand poultry will be shot dead following the discovery of an avian influenza home “highly pathogenic of the H5N1” type in a cereal farming (Indre-et-Loire), a announced the prefecture of Indre-et-Loire, Monday September 19.
“As part of the measures to combat the propagation of the virus, the slaughter of animals present in the breeding will be carried out as soon as possible,” state services said in a press release. The breeder will be compensated, said the prefecture.
To avoid any risk of propagation of the virus, a 3 -kilometer protection area and a 10 -kilometer surveillance area around the farm have been established since Saturday. In these areas, the lowercap birds must be sheltered. The hunt for water and feathers is prohibited.
“The avian influenza virus is actively circulating among wild birds and its diffusion with domestic poultry can have important economic and health consequences for the poultry sector”, warned the prefecture.
persistence Virus in wild birds in Europe
Officially, in France, the level of risk is classified as “negligible”. But, at the end of the summer, the situation was unprecedented in many respects. On European coastlines, new mortality has been found in July-August in seabirds (seagulls, gulls, bassan crazy), but also inside land, among terrestrial birds, like the herons. The analyzes confirmed that these volatiles were well infected with the influenza A virus (H5N1).
Until 2021, it was the winter migrations of the northern hemisphere to the south that transported avian viruses. This time, sedentary species are contaminated and cause infections in farms outside the migration season. Until relatively spared areas, such as Brittany, are now very exposed, with a high risk due to the density of farms.
Another peculiarity: far from confining themselves to the palmipeds, classic hosts of avian viruses, the line of H5N1 which circulates this year affects all the poultry species – turkey, chickens of flesh, rooster. The phenomenon does not know any borders. In the United States, 45 million poultry has been infected since January, against 46 million in Europe (including 19.2 million in France and 13.8 million in Italy).
Established at the end of June, The latest assessment about the avian influenza of the European Food Safety Authority was concluded with an alert: the H5N1 virus “could have become endemic in populations of wild birds in Europe “. Since then, summer observations have confirmed a persistence of the virus in this fauna.