The authorities are asking producers to empty and disinfect buildings housing poultry.
To great ills, great remedies. Faced with an avian flu epidemic in the southwest, France has decided to impose a crawl in palmiped farms in 1134 municipalities, from April 17 to May 28, according to a decree published on Sunday in Official newspaper.
Between these two dates, “the installation of palmipeds is prohibited” in farms and “a crawl space is mandatory”. This implies that all buildings are emptied of their animals, cleaned and disinfected. Animal waste will have to be “evacuated” from farms, the text specifies.
Screening tests
The measure also applies to vehicles used to transport poultry, which must be “cleaned and disinfected” between each journey. These rules will be in effect until March 31, 2018.
To resume breeding of ducks and geese, producers will have to “undertake in writing on their honor” to respect certain biosecurity measures. Screening tests will also be carried out on palmipeds at several stages of their life.
The area concerned by the decree covers five departments: Haute-Garonne (37 municipalities), Gers (277 municipalities), Landes (267 municipalities), Pyrénées-Atlantiques (320 municipalities) and Hautes-Pyrénées (233 municipalities).
4 million ducks slaughtered
This territory includes the 709 municipalities targeted since January by the preventive slaughter of geese and ducks, with the aim of curbing the H5N8 avian influenza epizootic that appeared at the end of November.
In four months, nearly four million ducks were slaughtered in this way. This has slowed the spread of the virus. As of March 29, 485 infectious outbreaks had been identified on farms, mostly in the Landes, and 55 cases in wildlife.
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