Bad news for producers of poultry, eggs or foie gras.
Faced with successive episodes of avian flu, they demanded the rapid vaccination of their birds, but ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) has just dashed their hopes.
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In a notice made public on Monday, the health authority announced that vaccination could not be implemented in France this winter.
"
Several factors preventing its implementation have indeed been identified in the expert appraisal carried out by ANSES
", she asserts.
On the one hand, "
of the five vaccines currently available in the world, only one has a marketing authorization in Europe for chickens
".
Its effectiveness is “
uncertain on the strains currently circulating
”, she adds, because its authorization dates from 2006 and “
the vaccine strain on which it is based has not been updated since
”.
Read alsoAvian flu: the level of risk raised to “high” in France, confined poultry
On the other hand, "
the low stocks available for all existing vaccines mean that several months would be necessary to produce enough doses to vaccinate farms
", indicates ANSES.
Within the EU, vaccination against avian flu "
is only authorized for the moment to safeguard rare species kept in zoos
", underlines the agency.
Thus, “
the quantity of vaccines potentially available is therefore not sized for farms
”.
21 million poultry slaughtered
The last reason given by ANSES relates to the vaccination of ducks, essential according to it because "
these animals are often at the origin of the introduction and the spread of the disease within farms
".
Except that there is not yet a vaccine available for this species.
"
Vaccines are being researched and developed, but they will not be marketable this winter
," the agency said.
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If vaccination does not appear to be possible for this winter, ANSES underlines "
the need to continue discussions with vaccine manufacturers in order to develop an effective national vaccination strategy for the fight against avian influenza for all poultry in here in the fall of 2023, in particular in view of the evolution of the epidemiological situation
”.
Because, if France has experienced several major avian flu crises in recent years, “
that of 2021-2022 was particularly severe
”, points out ANSES.
It led to the slaughter of more than 21 million chickens, ducks and laying hens.
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