An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian flu was confirmed on Friday at a duck farm in Allons (Lot-et-Garonne), the prefecture announced. The 2,000 ducks present on the farm will be slaughtered to prevent the spread of the virus, the prefecture said in a press release.
A prefectural decree established a 3-kilometer protection zone and a 10-kilometer surveillance zone around the contaminated site to prevent any risk of the virus spreading to other farms. In these areas, the transport of poultry and captive birds is prohibited, unless the departmental directorate for population protection (DDPP) grants an exemption, indicated the same source.
The authorities ask the entire industry “for the strictest application of biosecurity measures to prevent the virus from entering farms through wild birds (during this migration period) or human activities.”
Mandatory vaccination
With the start of the bird flu season in Europe, France raised the risk from “negligible” to “moderate” on Wednesday, following the discovery of two outbreaks in the Seine-Maritime and Pas-de-Calais, and ahead of large migrations of wild birds. A third outbreak of bird flu was also confirmed on Thursday at a turkey farm in Nort-sur-Erdre (Loire-Atlantique).
The country, however, hopes to once again escape a major epizootic thanks to the vaccination of ducks, mandatory in the country from autumn 2023. France has thus gone from 1,800 outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) between 2021 and 2023, with 32 million birds slaughtered and billions of euros in losses, to a few dozen outbreaks in the last two years.
Source: BFM TV
