Two new duck farms have been infected with bird flu in western France, bringing the total of infected farms to five since the beginning of the month, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Monday (December 14th).
Read also: Avian flu: a first contaminated duck farm in France
These outbreaks concern "
a breeding of lean ducks in Vendée, at Saint-Maurice-des-Noues, and a breeding of breeding Muscovy ducks in Deux-Sèvres, at Saint-Sauveur
", near Bressuire, is it reported in a statement.
"
All the birds from these farms were slaughtered without delay or, for the most recent, are being slaughtered,
" he added.
Last week, three cases of avian influenza - commonly known as avian influenza - were spotted in duck farms intended for the production of foie gras in the Landes.
"
The traceability of upstream and downstream movements of infected farms makes it possible to identify both the risk factors and other potentially exposed farms, in which samples are taken to search for the
"H5N8
virus which
causes the disease. , specifies the ministry.
The traceability surveys made it possible to establish a link between the first two farms affected in the Landes.
"
There are people who went from the first breeding, in Benesse-Maremne, to the second, Saint-Geours-de-Maremne,
" said Loïc Evain, Deputy Director General of Food, a department of the Ministry of 'Agriculture.
However, the checks carried out did not establish a link between these two cases and the third Landes outbreak of Angresse, he said.
The animals are systematically slaughtered.
To date, all outbreaks combined, a little more than 35,000 birds have been culled, including about 30,000 ducks, according to figures communicated to AFP by the Ministry of Agriculture.
After outbreaks appeared in Russia and Kazakhstan this summer, the epizootic reached western Europe this fall, following the migrations of wildlife.
The first French cases had been detected in November in animal shops, in Corsica and in Yvelines, all delivered in geese by an individual from the North, according to information from the ministry delivered in early December.
More and more cases of this disease, which is highly contagious and fatal for birds, are also being found in the wild.
Quite recently, "
two new cases of avian influenza were confirmed in wild birds found dead: a barnacle goose in Calvados and another in Morbihan,
" the ministry said on Monday.
The latter emphasizes that "
avian influenza is not transmissible to humans through the consumption of poultry meat, eggs, fatty liver and more generally any food product
".
"
Farmed poultry are mainly contaminated by infected wild birds or, during an epizootic in livestock, by other infected poultry farms
," recalls the Anses health agency on its website.
