Ongoing outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) are threatening the future of France’s egg and poultry industry.
As of 19 April 2022, 1300 French poultry farms have been infected. Currently, 27 cases of backyard production and 46 cases in wild populations are under investigation.
Dozens of new cases are discovered every day. Similar to previous outbreaks, new HPAI cases were first discovered in southwest France, where free-range ducks are grown for foie gras production.
In January and February 2022:
the HPAI virus moved to western France, notably the Vendée district and Pays de Loire region,
impacting larger commercial poultry production, including broilers, turkeys, and laying hens that are raised indoors.
Since the early winter of 2021, France has euthanized more than 15 million birds (or about 5 percent of the estimated 300 million birds which comprise the total domestic poultry population, including backyard production).
In the Vendée district (with 836 cases as of 19 April 2022), farmers are reporting that local government agencies are so overwhelmed by the problem, that many farms are culling and burying the birds themselves onsite with quicklime.
The H5N1 virus variant appears to be highly transmissible and is rapidly spreading also to endangered bird species in zoos.
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All birds must be kept indoors (or under netting to prevent contact with wild birds). The order applies also to organic or free-range production ordered by the French Ministry of Agriculture.
Additionally, the Ministry has initiated a new census of all farms and individuals that raise birds, even for backyard production or as pets. In HPAI zones of surveillance and protection, close to confirmed cases, all movement of birds is prohibited.
Access to farms is strictly regulated and local governments can mandate the culling of all birds within a 3km radius of an infected farm.
Notwithstanding these
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measures, HPAI is still spreading north and is now threatening the Sarthe district, where one of the largest French free-range producers, the Volailles de Loué farmer cooperative, is based.
LDC, the largest poultry company in the European Union (EU), has already announced that its slaughtering capacity in the Pays de Loire region will decline by 20 percent.
Source: The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service & Global Agricultural Information Network
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