While Europe is experiencing the “most devastating” avian flu epizootic in its history and in France, two million poultry were slaughtered in December alone, the government set itself the objective on Thursday to launch the first vaccination of poultry in the fall of 2023.
- “The objective that I set is an objective of being able to spend the 2023-2024 season with a vaccine, a vaccine strategy”, affirmed the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, during a trip to Vendée.
- The acceleration of the spread of the bird flu virus is linked not only to the drop in temperatures, but also to the “high migratory activity of wild birds”, indicates the ministry.
- The previous wave in France, between the end of November 2021 and mid-May 2022, led to the slaughter of more than 20 million poultry.
This year, with 37 countries affected and more than 50 million poultry slaughtered, according to a report of the European Food Safety Authority – to which must be added the slaughtering carried out as a preventive measure – Europe is suffering from the worst epizootic (an epidemic that strikes animals) of avian flu in its entire history.
And France is not spared: from August 1 to December 21, 3.3 million animals have already been slaughtered, half of which are ducks. Two million were killed in December alone, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. A total of 226 outbreaks have been recorded on farms since August 1. The epidemic continues in particular to ravage those located in Vendée (94 outbreaks), in Maine-et-Loire (38 outbreaks) and Deux-Sèvres (33 outbreaks).
Vaccination to “avoid a new crisis” which poses many challenges
To deal with this, the government set itself the objective on Thursday of launching the first vaccination of poultry in the fall of 2023. The Ministry of Agriculture presented the main lines of its action plan to “avoid a new crisis” : a real logistical challenge, knowing that at this stage there is no sufficiently effective vaccine, with a marketing authorization, and even less European regulations authorizing vaccination, as AFP points out. European regulations authorizing the principle of vaccination “should come into force at the end of February”according to the government, while only a year ago, “professionals and stakeholders were directly opposed to it”.
Because of these obstacles, the deadline for this vaccination campaign had already been postponed since the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) had been seized, at the end of July, by the Ministry of Agriculture in order to assess the relevance and the procedures for implementing a vaccine strategy in gallinaceae for the fall of 2022, as recalled The world. But, according to ANSES experts, the deadlines imposed were too short and the situation should have been better anticipated.
Avian flu vaccine: first results around March 2023
By autumn 2023, ANSES will have to present different “relevant vaccination scenarios”. For example, she may recommend starting with certain species, such as ducks and turkeys, which are the most vulnerable to the virus. The French State will then be responsible for defining its vaccination strategy, quantifying its cost and determining the distribution of the payment.
According to the schedule presented this Thursday, the first results of the laboratory experiments should be known around March 2023. “To date, they are quite encouraging, with a good response to the virus”, says the Ministry of Agriculture. Five European countries have already embarked on the vaccine race and most of the results of the experiments should be known during this first quarter of 2023. Two French laboratories, including Ceva, are working on a vaccine for waterfowl (ducks), while the Netherlands are working on a vaccine for chickens and Italy for turkeys.