Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gers
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Translation Google
Avian flu: the virus strikes a breeding duck farm in Aignan in the Gers
Published on26/12/2022 at 19:50 , update at 8:58 p.m.
the essential While the end-of-year celebrations are in full swing, a duck and duck farm has been affected by avian influenza in Aignan, west of the Gers. A preventive slaughter is planned for this Tuesday. The poultry sector holds its breath while unprecedented prevention measures had been taken as part of the Adour plan.
"Clinical signs are rarely wrong and a temporary restricted area has been set up around the affected farm", explained this Monday afternoon Benjamin Constant, president of the Gers Association for the Promotion of Foie Gras and Poultry Farming. (AGPFGA) at the mention of a very strong suspicion of avian flu in the commune of Aignan.
At the start of the evening, the ax fell via 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 in a farm in the town of Aignan (. ..) To avoid any risk of spreading the virus to other farms, the prefect of Gers issued an order defining regulated protection zones (ZP), surveillance (ZS) and additional regulated zone (ZRS) which are put in place respectively within a radius of 3, 10 and 20 km around the contaminated establishment (read also below, Ed).
The "first link" struck in the heart
While unprecedented prevention and production limitation measures have been put in place as part of the Adour plan , avian influenza has finally spoiled the end-of-year celebrations for players in the Gers sector and beyond, from all of the Southwest. “It is humanly very difficult for the breeders who will suffer the consequences at the local level but it is also very worrying for the whole of the sector, especially since it affects reproduction, the first fundamental link to consider a restart. activity in 2023", Judge Benjamin Constant, also a member of the office of the French Confederation of Poultry (CFA).
The mayor of the town of Aignan, Gérard Pérès, deplores this first proven 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 hatcheries in the region. (Sud-Ouest Accouvage, editor’s note). The breeders are very careful but the virus passes all the same … “With a major risk: that of chain contaminations throughout the department.
Regulated areas: the municipalities concerned
In a press release, the prefecture specifies the municipalities concerned within a radius of 3 km ( Aignan, Loussous-Debat and Pouydraguin) but also 90 Gers municipalities under close surveillance within a radius of 20 km (including Eauze and Vic-Fezensac). " In these perimeters, all places where poultry and captive birds are kept are subject to specific requirements. In particular, the movement of poultry and other captive birds is prohibited, except for exemptions granted by the Departmental Directorate of Employment, du Travail, des Solidarités de la Protection des Populations (DDETS-PP). Surveillance is also reinforced by carrying out self-checks which are made compulsory by prefectural order."
The Gers prefecture also confirms "that an operation to depopulate the outbreak of avian influenza will be carried out" in Aignan, without specifying the date. "State services, and in particular the DDETS-PP, are mobilized alongside the breeder, who will be compensated for the losses suffered by this operation", explains the press release.
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2022/12/26...oductrices-a-aignan-dans-le-gers-10890296.php