A third French duck farm was contaminated in the Landes by the bird flu virus, the prefecture of this department announced on Saturday, where the level of risk of contagion “remains high”. “A very strong suspicion of highly pathogenic avian influenza in a farm located in the town of Angresse was revealed by a first rapid positive test which justified the depopulation (slaughter, nlr) this Saturday morning of all the breeding birds present “, ie 3,000 ducks and chickens, explains the prefecture. The official results will be known this Sunday.
The third home
This is the third outbreak of H5N8 detected in this department in less than a week, after the confirmation of the presence of the virus in two other farms, on December 8 in Benesse-Maremne then on December 9 in Saint-Geours de Maremne , towns located about ten kilometers from Angresse, in the southwest of the department.
The slaughter of all the poultry present on these two farms had been carried out the day after the contagion was confirmed, i.e. 6,000 in Benesse-Maremne then 15,000 animals in Saint-Geours de Maremne. The Angresse farm “is located in the protection zone set up following the identification of the 1st outbreak”, but the prefecture affirms that “no epidemiological link has been identified” between this farm and the other two. homes.
Risk area
However, it has the particularity of being located, like the first outbreak, within an area considered to be at “particular risk” because of its proximity to a wetland. “Due to the presence of two holdings affected by avian influenza that are unrelated but located in a particular risk area, reinforced surveillance is carried out by the veterinary services “, details the prefecture. For the moment, the contaminations are concentrated in the south-west in Landes, near the coast.
This surveillance concerns, on the one hand, a protection zone covering the municipalities whose territory is located in whole or in part 3 km from the outbreak and, on the other hand, a surveillance zone covering the municipalities located in the “particular risk zone”. In total, around forty municipalities are affected by these measures.
The appearance of these infectious foci brings back memories of the crises of winters 2015–16 and 2016–17 for the foie gras sector marked by massive slaughter, even if the feared economic impact in the immediate future is that of the Covid and restaurants closed due to the pandemic.
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