The vaccination campaign against bird flu should start during the month of October, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on Monday during a trip to the Gironde.
“I repeat, in October we will be able to vaccinate,” Marc Fesneau told the press, on the sidelines of a meeting with representatives of the Bordeaux vineyard in Salleboeuf, about twenty kilometers east of Bordeaux.
At the end of May, the chambers of agriculture of four departments in the Southwest as well as the inter-professions of foie gras and lean poultry in the region had requested “a deployment” of the vaccine “in the middle of summer” to guarantee the “survival” of the farms local ducks and poultry.
“I perfectly understand the desperation. If we can save a little time, we will, but saying today, as before for the Covid-19 vaccine, that we can shorten the hours is not serious, ”explained Marc Fesneau.
He then listed the vaccine validation, manufacturing, deployment, and storage processes that will be put in place before launching the “safe” campaign.
The virus has been back in circulation since early May.
After several years of successive crises caused by avian influenza, the virus has been circulating since the beginning of May in the Gers, Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, with 81 infected farms, more than half of them in the Gers, according to the authorities’ count. at the end of May.
“Obviously, we have passed the peak, because we have taken very strong measures, starting from this episode,” the Minister of Agriculture estimated this Monday.
Two vaccines tested in France have already proven to be “very effective” in ducks raised for foie gras, the health security agency (Anses) reported on May 25, paving the way for a national vaccination campaign “starting in autumn”, according to the first estimates of the ministry.
During the previous epizootic in 2022-2023, six million poultry were culled in France according to the ministry, after 22 million in 2021-2022.
Source: BFM TV
