Epidemic in Breton oysters. Several shellfish production basins are shut down this Saturday in the Morbihan and the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel after the contamination of oysters with the gastroenteritis virus. Oyster farmers denounce pollution from coastal discharges.
Due to the detection of "norovirus", the most common cause of gastroenteritis, all shellfish from the Mont-Saint-Michel bay area and the Hirel shellfish area (Ille-et-Vilaine) "Fishing, collecting, shipping and marketing are prohibited until further notice," says the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine. Product recalls have also been completed.
In Morbihan, the prefecture issued four similar orders in seven areas between December 18 and January 2, reporting “grouped human cases” of illness after eating oysters.
"Releases are not always well treated"
When questioned, the Regional Shellfish Farming Committee (CRC) of Southern Brittany estimates that the number of oyster businesses involved in Morbihan is 150, out of a total of 330.
"Since Christmas, we have had a gastroenteritis phenomenon, but the discharges are not always well treated by treatment plants and the virus is found in the maritime environment, all the more so with the rains we have had", denounces Philippe Le Gal, president of the CRC, who asks the prefect and the State to investigate the origin of this contamination, in particular on sanitation systems.
In a petition launched on January 1, the "Oyster Alliance" of Morbihan demands "substantial compensation for all oyster farmers", implicating the State, which it accuses of being "incapable of protecting the coast", but also communities.
"The elected officials of Morbihan gargle to welcome more and more locals and tourists, signing building permits with a vengeance while forgetting to ensure the management of human waste and sanitation", criticize the oyster farmers.
Temporary crisis
Contacted, the prefect of Morbihan Patrice Faure believes that this is a fleeting and infrequent crisis linked to a combination of several factors, namely the epidemic of gastroenteritis favored by low temperatures and heavy rains which lasted, "with runoff that fed sewage treatment plants and non-collective sanitation systems, sometimes causing overflows in rivers".
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A meeting is planned at the Ministry of Agriculture. Patrice Faure nevertheless expects "a rapid return to the quality of oysters". These include studying the question of speeding up research to find a process for rapid decontamination of oysters, and studying the possibilities of compensation.
How to open oysters without getting hurt
An inventory of all the department's treatment systems, collective or not, is also planned to review the priority of work to be carried out in an emergency: setting up buffer zones before treatment, resizing of treatment plants, etc. Shellfish storage is also being studied to allow oyster farmers affected by norovirus to continue their activity in the event of a crisis.
