An outbreak of bird flu was discovered in a farmyard in the Aisne, the prefecture announced on Wednesday (September 15), calling for everyone's vigilance, a few days after the detection of a case in the Ardennes.
"
A clinical suspicion has just been confirmed today by the national reference laboratory in a farmyard located in the town of Aubenton
", wrote the prefecture of Aisne in a
press
release.
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The prefecture recalls that "
like several European countries, France is facing a new episode of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)
", commonly called avian flu, and that "
the disease has been circulating for a few weeks in Belgium and Luxembourg
". "
The origin of the contamination is the purchase of poultry on a Belgian market
", from "
a professional who sells his birds on various markets in Belgium (Florenville, Arlon, Chimay, Tournai, Bastogne, Charleroi, Anderlecht)
" , said the press release, calling on anyone who has bought a bird in one of these markets since early August to consult their veterinarian if the animal shows symptoms of avian flu.
The prefecture calls for "
everyone's vigilance
"
The detection of this outbreak, originally identified, does not result in a ban on the movement of poultry, but the prefecture asks for "the
vigilance of all, professionals, health partners, individuals who own birds, hunters
" in order to "
detect any suspicion of disease at the first signs
”.
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Friday, the level of risk was raised from "
negligible
" to "
moderate
", on "
the whole of the metropolitan territory
", after the detection of a first case in the farmyard of a private individual of the Ardennes, near the Belgian border. Preventive measures have become compulsory in municipalities located in so-called special risk areas (ZRP), that is to say sheltering wetlands frequented by migratory birds.
This case in the Ardennes, however, did not call into question the status which had just been recovered by France, on September 2, as a "
country free from influenza
", according to the Ministry of Agriculture. French breeders were just starting to recover from last winter's bird thrush epizootic, which began in November 2020 in France and led to the slaughter of more than 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks. Avian influenza is not transmissible to humans through the consumption of meat or eggs, the Aisne prefecture recalled in its press release.