Several shellfish production basins are stopped in Morbihan and the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, in France, after the contamination of oysters with the gastroenteritis virus, while the oyster farmers denounce pollution from coastal discharges.
Due to the detection of “norovirus”, the most common cause of gastroenteritis, all shellfish from the Mont-Saint-Michel bay area and the Hirel shellfish area (Ille-et-Vilaine) “are prohibited from fishing, collecting, shipping and marketing, until further notice “, said the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine in a press release, after a decree issued on January 3. Product recalls have also been completed.
In Morbihan, the prefecture issued four similar orders in seven areas between December 18 and January 2, reporting “grouped human cases” of illness after eating oysters.
Questioned by AFP, the Regional shellfish farming committee (CRC) of South Brittany denounces the pollution of coastal discharges and estimates at 150 the number of oyster companies concerned in Morbihan, out of a total of 330.
Discharges are not always well treated by treatment plants
“Since Christmas, we have had a gastroenteritis phenomenon, but the discharges are not always well treated by treatment plants and the virus is found in the maritime environment, all the more so with the rains that we have had.“, explains Philippe Le Gal, president of the CRC, who asks the prefect and the State to investigate the origin of this contamination, in particular on the sanitation systems.
In a petition launched on January 1, “the Oyster Alliance“du Morbihan demands a”substantial compensation for all oyster farmers“, implicating the state, which it accuses of being”unable to protect the coastline“, but also communities.
“Elected officials of Morbihan gargle to welcome more and more locals and tourists, signing building permits with a vengeance while forgetting to ensure the management of human waste and sanitation“, criticize the oyster farmers.
Emergency work
Questioned by AFP, the prefect of Morbihan Patrice Faure believes that this is a fleeting and infrequent crisis linked to a combination of several factors, namely the epidemic of gastroenteritis favored by low temperatures and heavy rains that lasted, “with runoff that fed sewage treatment plants and non-collective sanitation systems, sometimes causing overflows in rivers“.
A meeting is planned at the Ministry of Agriculture, added Mr. Faure, who nevertheless expects “a rapid return to oyster quality“. This includes studying the question of speeding up research to find a process for rapid decontamination of oysters, and studying the possibilities of compensation.
An inventory of all the department’s treatment systems, collective or not, is also planned to review the priority of work to be carried out in an emergency: setting up buffer zones before treatment, resizing of treatment plants, etc.
Shellfish storage is also being studied to allow oyster farmers affected by norovirus to continue their activity in the event of a crisis.
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