France orders cull of ducks after severe bird flu outbreak

[Gert van der Hoek]

4th January 2017


Hundreds of thousands of ducks are to be culled in three areas of France following a severe outbreak of bird flu.
The measure will cover all free range ducks, plus geese, in the Gers, Landes and Hautes-Pyrenees areas.

It will begin on Thursday and could continue for more than two weeks.
The areas affected are in southwestern France, where most foie gras - made from duck and goose liver - is produced.

Farms which confine their birds and run a full production cycle - from ducklings to end products - will be exempt from the cull.
The virus has spread quickly over the last month.

France's agriculture ministry said in a statement: "The principle is to quickly kill the species most affected to date by the virus."

Marie-Pierre Pe, from foie gras makers' group CIFOG, said an initial 800,000 birds would be killed in the next week.
More could be slaughtered if the virus can not be brought under control, she told Reuters.

 

[Pathfinder]

France extends duck cull zone amid further bird flu outbreaks

Published January 10, 2017 Reuters

(Reuters)

PARIS ? France on Tuesday widened an area in which mass culling of ducks is to take place as new cases of bird flu were confirmed in the southwest, the country's main foie gras producing region.

The government had ordered last week the slaughter of all free range ducks, as well as geese, in part of the southwest in a push to halt the spread of the severe H5N8 bird flu virus.

In a decree published in the government's official journal, France listed 187 districts as covered by the preventative cull, compared with 150 in the initial order last week.

France had as of Monday confirmed 109 outbreaks of the H5N8 virus on poultry farms, according to the farm ministry, compared to around 90 when culling of birds began last Thursday.
...
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/...ull-zone-amid-further-bird-flu-outbreaks.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Tue Feb 21, 2017 | 2:45am EST

France to cull 600,000 more ducks as fights bird flu virus

By Claude Canellas | BORDEAUX, FRANCE

France will cull a further 600,000 ducks as part of efforts to prevent a spread of the H5N8 bird flu virus, the country's farming minister Stephane Le Foll said on Tuesday.

The latest cull will take place in the Landes region of southwest France, which is home to the most of the country's foie gras producers.

"We have already culled a lot of ducks in the eastern bit of that area. We know that there is still an area remaining where we will have to take action to cull all the ducks," Le Foll told the France Bleu regional radio station.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-france-idUSKBN1600N0

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France to slaughter 600,000 more ducks in bird flu fight

By RFI Issued on 21-02-2017 Modified 21-02-2017 to 11:21

The French government has ordered a cull of all 600,000 surviving ducks in the south-western Landes region, where 25 percent of France's foie gras is produced - the latest move in the fight against a bird flu epidemic that has hit farmers as they recovered from previous outbreaks.

Some 1.9 million ducks and geese have already been culled and a further 1.3 million have died in this year's outbreak of the H5N8 virus in France and Agriculture Minister St?phane Le Foll announced Tuesday that the 600,000 surviving in the Landes will be slaughtered.
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The Landes has been the worst-hit area, with 151 cases, while there were another 119 elsewhere in the south-west.
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http://en.rfi.fr/france/20170221-france-slaughter-600000-more-ducks-bird-flu-fight

 

[Pathfinder]

Translation Google

Avian influenza: a "crawl space" set up in four departments

By the lefigaro.fr, AFP agency Updated on 22/02/2017 at 17:27 Published on 22/02/2017 at 08:29

While the avian flu epidemic has not yet stabilized, the Minister of Agriculture finally announced on Tuesday the slaughter of 360,000 palmipeds, as well as a crawl space in an area affecting four departments of the Southwest concentrating l Of the H5N8 outbreaks. According to the plan to fight avian influenza presented Tuesday afternoon by St?phane Le Foll to breeders gathered in Mont-de-Marsan, 360,000 ducks will be slaughtered "within the next 15 days" in the Landes, the first department producing Foie gras, not 600,000 as announced in the morning by the minister. The remaining 240,000 will be "at the end of production", before the creation of a crawl space in the "large regulated zone of the Gers, Landes, Pyr?n?es-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyr?n?es", where the majority Of cases of H5N8 avian influenza "of unprecedented virulence," the minister said. "As last year, the animals remaining in these areas will complete their production cycle and will be able to be valued in the sector," said the Ministry of Agriculture in a statement.
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The Landes, which represent a quarter of the French production of foie gras, are currently the department most affected by preventive slaughter (244 communes), ahead of the Gers (155 communes). A total of 556 municipalities have been affected throughout the South-West, according to an AFP count according to the Official Journal.
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On January 4, France launched a policy of massive and preventive slaughter of palmipeds in the area, to try to stop this epizootic, initially led by migratory birds. Professionals in the foie gras sector had already mentioned last week a "very aggressive" virus, resulting in an epizootic more difficult to eradicate than that caused last year by another strain of avian influenza, the H5N1 ...

The Departmental Directorate of Protection of Populations (DDPP) announced yesterday that a chicken farmer from the Dunkerque region has found 6,000 animals dead on his farm, which has 27,000 birds. Analyzes were carried out to determine the causes of these deaths and to establish whether the bird flu was the cause. If a case of avian influenza is confirmed, measures could be taken to slaughter poultry.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/...ire-mis-en-place-dans-quatre-departements.php