Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
[h=1]Bird flu: the Southwest farms will close several months to stop the epidemic[/h] Published on 01/14/2016
To stem the epidemic of avian influenza, goose farms and Southwest ducks will have to freeze their production for several months, a first in France, but there will be no preventive culling, announced Thursday the Ministry of Agriculture.
There will be "no massive preventive slaughter of farm animals during" but a crawl space procedure will be in place from January 18.
This measure, a first in France, had not been decided at the last bird flu outbreak in 2007/2008, the ministry told AFP.
Specifically, the ducks and geese that are already in farms for the production of foie gras may be normally fed and fattened and slaughtered, a process that takes about 12-15 weeks.
But then, farmers will no longer accept new ducklings and goslings (small goose) and shall freeze their production to allow "the implementation of cleaning, disinfection and crawl spaces in the whole area" concerned the statement said.
"From April, almost all farms should be empty," said AFP office of the Minister of Agriculture, St?phane Le Foll.
To stem the epidemic of avian influenza, goose farms and Southwest ducks will have to freeze their production for several months, a first in France, but there will be no preventive culling, announced Thursday the Ministry of Agriculture.
There will be "no massive preventive slaughter of farm animals during" but a crawl space procedure will be in place from January 18.
This measure, a first in France, had not been decided at the last bird flu outbreak in 2007/2008, the ministry told AFP.
Specifically, the ducks and geese that are already in farms for the production of foie gras may be normally fed and fattened and slaughtered, a process that takes about 12-15 weeks.
But then, farmers will no longer accept new ducklings and goslings (small goose) and shall freeze their production to allow "the implementation of cleaning, disinfection and crawl spaces in the whole area" concerned the statement said.
"From April, almost all farms should be empty," said AFP office of the Minister of Agriculture, St?phane Le Foll.