The producers of foie gras are betting a lot on the holiday season, a pivotal period and all the more crucial this year as the preventive slaughterconsecutive to risk of bird flu have reduce breeding. Far from being a memory, the threat is still very much in people’s minds. If no proven case ofinfluenzahas not been identified, cases of suspicion still exist. Example in New Aquitaine where suspicions of avian flu weigh on a farm in Lot-et-Garonne. The duck farm located in Monbahus, near Marmande was placed in quarantine on Friday, December 1. Preliminary tests have shown a suspicion of the H5 virus, “without further details”. But there is no certainty “on the fact of knowing if it is weakly or highly pathogenic”, according to Dominique Graciet, president of the Chamber of Agriculture of New Aquitaine, quoted by AFP.
Samples were taken from palmipeds for further testing under the new biosecurity standards. Set up after the two episodes of avian flu in recent winters, this protocol requires analyzes before any animal movement.
While awaiting the results of the analyzes carried out in a laboratory in Finistère (Brittany), several measures have been taken as a precaution. Palmiped breeders in six surrounding municipalities are prohibited from moving their ducks, under the same preventive device. A minimum of people are allowed to enter this security perimeter, specifies France blue.
Unconfirmed suspicions in recent months
Should these measures be of concern? No, reassures the president of the regional chamber of agriculture, this is only a protocol intended to avoid any risk of the virus spreading, if there is a virus. Because for the moment it is only a question of suspicion. The region has also been the scene of several alerts of the same type in recent months without any being verified.
“The whole challenge is to keep the virus and destroy it where it is,” says France bleu Dominique Graciet, the president of the regional chamber of agriculture, to avoid any spread. The situation is under control in the Lot- et-Garonne, the protocol applies as it was intended to apply. “
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