Two factories of the recycling company Atemax are overwhelmed, causing “significant delays in the collection” of dead animals from breeders in north-east France, who are forced to keep the carcasses despite the health risks, the company and breeders have learned.
The Atemax company, which is responsible for transporting corpses in the north-east and west of the country, has been experiencing delays for two weeks, it said in a press release, confirming information from France Blue. For Atemax, “this situation is the result of the heat peaks at the end of July/beginning of August which caused an excess of mortality” and “an increase in volumes with an influx of particularly degraded materials that are difficult to process in Vénérolles (Aisne) and Saint-Langis-lès-Mortagne (Orne)”.
Collection requests up to 10 to 50%
Requests for the removal of dead animals have increased “by 10 to 50%” compared to last year, estimates Sophie Grégoire, the company’s communications director. The “liquefaction of raw materials” linked to the heat has caused “technical problems”, she says.
“In some departments, in particular in the Vosges and Meurthe-et-Moselle, no carcasses have been collected for several days,” says Alain Boulard, president of the Aube Chamber of Agriculture and chairman of the Grand Est livestock commission. According to him, the usual time limit is 48 hours. “We have already had delays, some disruptions, but not at this stage,” he explains. “This raises major public health concerns.”
Risks of spreading diseases
“High temperatures accelerate the decomposition of carcasses, which poses the risk of spreading diseases and olfactory discomfort,” explains Frédéric Van Westeinde, director of the FDSEA in Haute-Marne. “It’s horrible, the smell is terrible,” says Benoît Chamagne, a dairy farmer in Haute-Saône. Two of his calves were stillborn on August 14 and have not yet been collected, he says.
Atemax said it was holding talks with “state services” to find “alternative solutions”, but was unable to give a time frame before things would return to normal.
The outbreak of bluetongue also raises fears of a new accumulation of carcasses. “Hundreds of breeders could be affected” in Côte-d’Or, for example, worries the president of the FDSEA in the department, Jacques de Loisy.
Source: BFM TV
