The Ministry of Agriculture announced that 3 new farms were contaminated with the H5N1 virus. Two of them are in the Landes. A total of six influenza outbreaks have been identified.
Avian influenza is spreading in southwestern France. After 3 infectious outbreaks detected in Dordogne since the end of November, two new cases have been identified in this department and another in the Landes, announced this Monday the Ministry of Agriculture.
On its website, the ministry of Stéphane Le Foll indicates that three new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza for poultry have been confirmed: a breeding of ducks and another of guinea fowl in the Landes as well as a breeding of ducks in the Dordogne . In total, 6 outbreaks of avian influenza have been detected since the end of November on the national territory. France had been free from any case since 2007.
Only one viral strain identified
At this stage, all the viral strains are not yet known. The H5N1 virus was formally identified in the backyard of an individual in Biras, the first case identified. Among the second cases detected in Saint-Paul-la-Roche (Dordogne), the animals were contaminated with the H5N2 virus. For the 3 new farms affected in the Landes and Dordogne, the ministry does not specify the viral strain.
To determine them, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) is currently sequencing them. She specifies that “this is a European strain which has evolved by mutation from the low pathogenic form to the highly pathogenic form for poultry. It is not an Asian strain, so it is not the Asian strain detected a few years ago. “
The ministry once again decided to apply biosecurity measures (decontamination, traffic restriction), take samples and slaughter all the animals (14,000 ducks and 1,000 geese were slaughtered in Dordogne). A 3 km surveillance zone has been set up as well as a 10 km surveillance perimeter around the farms.
Low risk of transmission to humans
Since the appearance of avian flu in France, 8 countries in Asia and Africa have decided to suspend their imports of French poultry (South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia).
These foreign countries are not the only ones to take precautionary measures. In a decree published on Wednesday 2 December in the Official Journal, the Ministry of Agriculture banned the export of live poultry, eggs and other game bird products “from the entire Dordogne department to ‘other member states of the European Union or third countries’. The Prefect of the Landes also pronounced this ban.
On the eve of the Christmas holidays, the minister is trying to limit the economic damage to the poultry industry. He has been repeating for weeks that the risk of transmission for humans is low, and that avian flu is not transmitted through the consumption of fatty liver, eggs or poultry meat.
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