Isabelle Daugreilh Producer of force-fed ducks (Landes)
At first, she didn’t want to. Open the doors to production without production, what good is it? Isabelle Daugreilh slaughtered her last ducks on December 21, 2020, to carry out the crawl space of two weeks per year used in poultry. Two months later, her force-feeding room remains empty, and no one knows when it will fill up. “The bird flu virus was identified on January 2, at my neighbor’s house. I saw the vet arrive in the morning. In the afternoon, he called me to tell me what was going on. In less than a week, the surrounding farms were all depopulated, the animals slaughtered. In a blast of wind, the entire Hérault was affected. The crisis still lasts, sad repetition of a scenario already seen three years ago.
Entering the profession in 1983, self-employed since 1991, Isabelle Daugreilh has already received other gusts. “At first, we were making geese. Then, in 2001, we were told: it’s too expensive, you have to make duck. ” She did it. Sixteen years later, she left the large cooperative that supplied her and told her what to do, to become independent. “The ducks they sold us came from who knows where in France. Now, I buy them from two local breeders and I sell them force-fed to a family of foie gras producers. “
Large intensive farms rub their hands
In his corner, the small producers do not exceed 3,000 ducks on average, raised in the open air. The bird flu epidemic affects them doubly. “Today, we want to force them to put the animals in building. But none will have the means to do it – and the duck will be worse, ”explains Isabelle Daugreilh. A little further, the large intensive farms are rubbing their hands, without being less vulnerable to the virus, all locked up whatever their animals are. So, finally, the producer said yes, she will participate in the Tour de France of family farms organized by Modef. It is she, herself, who will open the ball, this Saturday, February 27. Deputies and senators will be there, as will a Toulouse veterinarian, a specialist in avian flu. “We are going to talk about these two months that the duck producers have just spent without any income. »Put on the table, too, the solutions to be found so that the little ones do not leave all their feathers there. M.-N. B.
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