France is facing an epizootic of rare intensity and above all of an almost unprecedented extent. More than 1,300 farms have been affected. They had to euthanize at least 15 million poultry.
It is usually the departments of southwestern France that are affected. For the past ten years, every winter, farms in the Landes, Gers and Pyrénées-Atlantiques have faced an episode of avian flu.
But so far, the Vendée is the most affected, with more than 500 contaminated farms. This situation prompted the prefecture to order “preventive euthanasia”. The department, country of poultry, had to empty all its farms: nine million chickens, ducks and turkeys were euthanized. Farmers are now forced to disinfect their farms and wait several months before being able to work again.
Pictures that are hard to watch
The French anti-farming NGO L214 published on Wednesday April 27 an aerial view shot in this department. We see a huge pit in which hundreds of thousands of poultry carcasses are buried by a backhoe loader.
? Millions of birds are buried in a motorway construction site in Vendée.
The State is overwhelmed by the number of corpses linked to the #Avian Fluboosted by intensive farming.? How far will the horror go? Share the video to break this scandal! pic.twitter.com/fvb6sgR1lq
— L214 ethics & animals (@L214) April 27, 2022
The painting shocked many animal advocates. The Vendée prefecture defended itself. She says she has no choice in the face of the influx of carcasses. And maintains that it is only a temporary solution.
On the other side of the Loire, Brittany, the most poultry-producing region in France with more than 40% of French chickens, is beginning to be infected. For the moment, only a dozen outbreaks of contamination have been identified. But already hundreds of thousands of waterfowl are slaughtered as a preventive measure. In Ile-et-Vilaine, where two farms were contaminated, 100,000 poultry were slaughtered. A figure that shows that the authorities are very worried.
A story of wild birds
The extent of the epizootic is due to the migration of wild birds. While migrating from Europe to Africa, these birds take breaks where they transmit this flu to farm poultry.
Usually, the contaminations take place at the driveway, during the north-south journey at the beginning of winter. But this time, during their south-north journey at the end of winter, the migratory birds flew over the Pays de la Loire and Brittany, causing a second epidemic wave and this unprecedented situation.
NGOs point the finger at intensive farming. In many contaminated farms, particularly in Vendée, poultry are concentrated in closed places, which facilitates the spread of the disease which is transmitted by air. Another problem: the farms themselves are very close. If one farm is contaminated, all the other neighboring farms are too. Finally, it often happens that the chicken is born in one place, raised elsewhere, and then slaughtered further away. This again favors contamination. According to breeders, a whole system needs to be reviewed.
► To read also: Avian flu: how to protect yourself?