LDC fears bird flu may spread through France again
19/05/2023 14:22
By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, May 19 (Reuters) - France's largest poultry
producer, LDC LOUP.PA , warned on Friday that an upsurge in
bird flu cases in the southwest might lead to the virus
spreading to the country's major producing regions that were
ravaged by it last year.
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, killed hundreds
of millions of birds globally last year, disrupting supplies.
Though there have been no documented cases of human-to-human
transmission, countries must prepare for any change in the H5N1
virus's behaviour, the World Health Organization has said.
France, the European Union's second largest poultry producer
and worst-hit EU country in the latest outbreak, has recorded
new cases on duck farms in the southwest, prompting the
government to reinforce sanitary measures last week.
"We are not at all reassured," LDC Chief Executive Philippe
Gelin told Reuters in an interview.
He feared that duck producers who culled birds in the
southwest could be tempted to recoup output in large
poultry-producing regions, notably Vendee, several hundred
kilometres north, where ducks are being farmed at lower density
levels than before last year's outbreaks.
"We must avoid the transport of live animals," he said. "The
risk is that what we have put in place to fight the virus in
Vendee be rendered ineffective by some overproduction or even a
return to normal (levels) of duck production in that region," he
said.
France's bird flu crisis started in the southwest last year
before spreading north to regions including Vendee, which has
recorded a third of all French farm outbreaks since August 2022.
Bird flu is transmitted by infected faeces or direct contact
with contaminated feed, clothing and equipment, or through the
air.
Ducks are very receptive to it and remain asymptomatic for
many days, increasing the risk of transmission.
France is due to begin vaccinating ducks against the virus
this autumn. While Gelin welcomed the programme, he warned that
there was still no certainty that importing countries would
accept vaccinated birds or their products.
"Everyone is waiting for the first country to start
vaccinating, either to do the same or not to, in order to win
market shares," he said.
Brazil, the world's largest poultry exporter, recorded its
first-ever bird flu case on Monday.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by John
Stonestreet)
((Sybille.deLaHamaide@thomsonreuters.com; +336 8774 4148;))