According to professionals in the foie gras industry (CIFOG), 3.7 million ducks have been slaughtered since the end of 2016 in southwestern France (including 2.3 million as a preventive measure).
Professionals in the French foie gras sector are experiencing another hard blow. The French bought 4,836 tonnes of foie gras in supermarkets in 2016 against 5,336 in 2015. This drop constitutes a drop of 9.3%, due to a “reduced supply” due to avian flu, explains the Committee. Interprofessional of Foie Gras Palmipeds (CIFOG).
In value, the decline in sales is however only 1.9% over the year 2016, said CIFOG, according to which “3.7 million ducks” have been slaughtered since the end of 2016 in the southwest of France (2.3 million for preventive purposes and 1.4 million in farms affected by the H5N8 virus). As a reminder, the preventive slaughter of animals area has just been extended once again, to 609 municipalities.
250 million euros in losses
As a reason for hope, CIFOG plans to restart the activity of farms in the South-West in “May”, after “cleaning and disinfection” of farms “by March 31”. “For the moment, production is at a standstill in almost all of the Landes, Gers, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, as well as in part of the Hautes-Pyrénées and Lot-et-Garonne”, which does not is not stabilized, he said in comments reported by Agence France Presse (AFP).
402 outbreaks of the disease in farms and 49 cases in wildlife have in fact been confirmed to date by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Landes department remains the most affected with 236 outbreaks. In total, CIFOG estimates that 6 million ducks cannot be put into production since the start of the avian flu epizootic (animal epidemic not transmissible to humans) transmitted by the H5N8 virus.
These are therefore “9.7 million ducks lost for the French production of foie gras” concludes the CIFOG which estimates at “more than 250 million euros” the losses for the whole of the sector.
Farmers enter into resistance
Poultry farmers in Lot-et-Garonne are standing up against the mass slaughter of animals. On Monday February 27, the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture and the Rural Coordination union indicated in a joint press release their refusal to establish the confinement of palmipeds.
In this department little affected by avian influenza (10 outbreaks of H5N8 avian influenza were reported on February 24), the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, and of the Rural Coordination union Patrick Franken, declared ” unilaterally “the deconfinement of animals,” which will have the consequence of avoiding untimely slaughter “of healthy animals.
.
