The perimeter in which the prefects can order a preventive slaughter of poultry around confirmed outbreaks of avian influenza has been widened and now concerns five departments, according to a decree published Tuesday in the Official Journal (J0).
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According to this decree, dated January 11 and published on Tuesday, “
preventive poultry slaughter may be ordered by the Prefect in all the municipalities of the following departments: Gers (32);
Landes (40);
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64);
Hautes-Pyrénées (65)
”.
And in the Lot-et-Garonne department, these preventive slaughterings can be ordered in 11 municipalities, it is specified.
A previous decree, published on January 3, concerned more than 110 municipalities in the Landes and 15 municipalities in the Pyrénées-Atlantique.
These measures were taken "
considering the rapid spread of the virus responsible for the highly pathogenic avian influenza of the H5N8 subtype in avifauna and in farmed poultry and the need to prevent the risk of spreading the epizootic
», Is it indicated.
The “
target groups
” are “
all poultry keepers, veterinarians, departmental analysis laboratories, poultry professionals, rendering and slaughtering companies
”, details the decree.
Despite massive slaughter of ducks, for the Landes department alone, 170 outbreaks of avian influenza were confirmed on Monday (they were 127 on Friday), against six in the Gers (four more than on Friday), the minister of 'Agriculture Julien Denormandie during a trip to the Gers prefecture.
In the Gers, 50,000 palmipeds have already been slaughtered, and "
drastic, massive slaughter in an area of 5 km around each identified outbreak
" will also take place in
"all the affected departments such as Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques
" , declared the minister.
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On all the affected areas, already "
more than 600,000 ducks
" had been euthanized on Friday, the minister had previously indicated.
The H5N8 strain of avian flu, which is also rife elsewhere in Europe, was first spotted in a farm in France in early December.