As the end-of-year celebrations are in full swing, a duck and duck farm has been hit by bird flu in Aignan, west of the Gers. A preventive slaughter is scheduled for this Tuesday. The poultry sector is holding its breath as unprecedented prevention measures were taken under the Adour plan.
“Clinical signs are rarely wrong and a temporary restricted area has been set up around the affected farm,” explained Benjamin Constant, president of the Gers Association for the Promotion of Foie Gras and Poultry Farming (AGPFGA) on Monday afternoon. ) to the mention of a very strong suspicion of avian flu in the commune of Aignan.
At the beginning of the evening the ax fell through a press release from the services of the Gers prefecture: “An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has just been confirmed this Monday December 26, 2022 on a farm in the town of Aignan (…) To avoid any risk of spreading the virus to other farms, the prefect of the Gers has issued an ordinance defining the regulated protection zones (ZP), the surveillance zones (ZS) and the additional regulated zones (ZRS) set up respectively in a radius of 3, 10 and 20 km around the contaminated plant (see also below, ed).
The “first ring” struck in the heart
While unprecedented prevention and production limitation measures were put in place as part of the Adour plan, bird flu finally marred the end-of-year celebrations for players in the Gers sector and beyond, from across the South West. “It is humanly very difficult for farmers who will pay the consequences locally but it is also very worrying for the whole sector, above all because it affects reproduction, the first essential link to consider a recovery of activity in 2023” , Judge Benjamin Constant , also a board member of the French Confederation of Poultry (CFA).
The mayor of the city of Aignan, Gérard Pérès, deplores this first confirmed positive case of H5N1 in the Gers in this winter of 2022. “We are in a land of family farms, with one of the rare independent nurseries in the region. ( Sud-Ouest Accouvage, editor’s note). Farmers are very careful but the virus passes anyway… “With an important risk: that of chain contamination throughout the department.
Regulated areas: the municipalities concerned
In a statement, the prefecture specifies the municipalities concerned within a radius of 3 km (Aignan, Loussous-Debat and Pouydraguin) but also 90 cities of the Gers under close surveillance within a radius of 20 km (including Eauze and Vic-Fezensac). “Within these perimeters, all places where poultry and captive birds are kept are subject to specific requirements. In particular, the circulation of poultry and other captive birds is prohibited, except for exceptions granted by the Departmental Directorate of Employment, Labor and Solidarity for the Protection of Populations (DDETS-PP). Supervision is also strengthened by carrying out self-checks made mandatory by prefectural decree.
The prefecture of Gers also confirms “that an operation will be carried out to depopulate the outbreak of bird flu” in Aignan, without specifying the date. “The state services, and in particular the DDETS-PP, are mobilized alongside the farmer, who will be compensated for the losses suffered by this operation”, explains the press release.
