Are slaughterhouses foci of coronavirus contamination?

In the Loiret, at the Fleury-lès-Aubrais slaughterhouse, at least 34 people were contaminated with Covid-19. It is a little less than one employee in 10 there. All other employees will be screened by this Tuesday. In Côtes-d'Armor, another slaughterhouse has suffered the same fate with at least 69 contaminations. However, its closure is not on the agenda because " even temporary, it would be a disaster ", according to the mayor of Mené where the slaughterhouse is located, Jacky Aignel, interviewed by AFP. He specifies that " 600 people " of his commune work there on 6500 inhabitants. A third slaughterhouse, in Vendée, reports the same escalations of high contamination.

Read also: Covid-19: more than 100 cases detected in two slaughterhouses

Abroad, too, slaughterhouses observe many cases among their employees. In Germany, there is one that has already counted more than 100 cases since the beginning of May. In other regions, several hundred have been counted since April. In the United States, several slaughterhouses, at least 115, also act as a center of contagion. 5,000 employees were infected there and four, responsible for enforcing health rules, died. In Brazil, Spain or Australia, the situation is the same. The question is therefore legitimate: do slaughterhouses promote the transmission of coronavirus?

According to Doctor Philippe Vermesch, president of the union of liberal doctors, these numerous cases would rather be put on the account of " the organizational ". In the absence of precise studies, for the moment, he estimates that " the promiscuity " which reigns in these slaughterhouses would be the cause of this important rate of contamination.

There are few slaughterhouse workers who are in contact with living animals and those who are, are equipped like cosmonauts

Working conditions which sometimes prevent compliance with the rules on distance. " There is a lot of promiscuity, " confirms Geoffrey Le Guilcher, author of Steak Machine at the Goutte d'Or editions in 2017, story of an infiltration of more than a month in a large Breton slaughterhouse. " In the changing rooms, we are all side by side, there are shared showers, a break room where we leave our masks and gloves outside and generally, many of us take our breaks at the same time ", relates it from his experience. According to the journalist, one of the questions that arises today, faced with these numerous contaminations, is whether the rate of slaughterhouses has been reduced.

Read also: Covid-19: more than 100 cases detected in two slaughterhouses

Geoffrey Le Guilcher considers that it is justly complicated to reduce it, because the slaughterhouses all suffer from a lack of profitability. " The average price of a kilo of beef is 0.01 euros in profit, " explains the journalist. Under the assumption that the rate has remained the same, knowing that the French slaughterhouses did not close their doors during confinement, then contacts between workers necessarily remain very numerous.

He also believes that transmission cannot occur between humans and living beasts. " There are few workers in the slaughterhouse who are in contact with living animals and those who are, are equipped like cosmonauts, " he says. He finally remembers one of the rules shared by slaughterhouse workers: " What happens at the slaughterhouse stays at the slaughterhouse ". What to doubt, in the face of the numerous contaminations which go up day by day, the establishment of strict sanitary rule.

Another informed person also believes that this is a " workplace health problem ". The cold in certain rooms would promote the survival and therefore the spread of the virus, the fact that workers must speak to each other regularly and possible laxity, in the face of difficult working conditions, are other possible explanations for these massive contaminations.

The animal removed from all suspicion?

Words shared by Paul Auffray, French pig breeder and vice-president of the National Pork Federation. At AFP, he also explains that " in slaughterhouses as in all companies where there are staff, there is inevitably overcrowding, so even with barrier measures, there are more risks. "

Voices are multiplying on the subject: working conditions and overcrowding between workers could largely lead to this contamination. " I do not think there is any contamination by blood ", also estimates Doctor Philippe Vermesch, insisting once again on the confined nature of the slaughterhouses.

Ditto according to Laurent Habert, director general of the Regional Health Agency of Center-Val de Loire. Questioned by BFMTV, he assures that “ there is no proven chain of contamination from meat. Once again, according to him, the contamination of the employees was made between employees. In March and April, the French health security agency, ANSES, also assured that there was " no scientific evidence showing that farm animals and pets " are involved in the spread of the virus. The agency then rejected the hypothesis of contamination by food, a fortiori when the meat is cooked, which neutralizes the virus.

In the absence of a study, the track cannot however be completely ruled out. Above all, a study dating from 2015 in the journal Infection Ecology & Epidemiology ensured that part of the dromedaries taken to the Doha slaughterhouse was carrying a previous virus, discovered in 2012, the MERS-CoV, reports AFP. Thus, according to the researchers author of this study, these places were " vectors of its circulation and areas at high risk for human exposure ". Enough not to completely eliminate the animal track in the series of contamination experienced by slaughterhouses around the world.