The palmipeds will be able to move out of the area affected by bird flu. The government has lifted the existing restriction zone.
The bird flu epidemic is officially coming to an end in the South West. The Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed the lifting of the restriction zone as of September 15. An important step for breeders, who are struggling to recover from a crawl space lasting several weeks. However, the end of the outbreak is not confirmed in the 17 affected departments.
Adult eggs, ducklings and palmipeds will once again be able to circulate outside the restriction zone, which applies to areas affected by the avian influenza epidemic. The European Union confirmed this decision after a dedicated meeting. Until now, all outings have been prohibited, even if the farms have been repopulated. As the Ministry of Agriculture explains in a press release, “the recent identification of four residual foci (two in Dordogne and two in Aveyron), has not called into question the relevance of the eradication strategy. deployed in the field. “
Vigilance persists
The situation is still fragile. It is necessary that no cases of avian influenza infection occur within three months of cleaning the palmiped farms. In order to speed up the process, a crawl space was declared in the 17 affected departments. The farms were therefore emptied, cleaned and disinfected, but above all left deserted until May 16. A measure which made it possible to prevent the foci from staining with oil, after a phase of rapid expansion.
“The active surveillance of sensitive productions must continue as well as the efforts to put in place and maintain the adequate biosecurity measures in the farms”, underlines all the same the Ministry of Agriculture. Indeed, the occurrence of isolated cases, as recently in Aveyron, are not excluded. A total of 69 avian influenza outbreaks were discovered in France between late November and early January.
.
