More than 150 infected farms in France, mostly in the Landes

French poultry are also suffering from an epidemic. 151 farms are now infected with bird flu, two thirds of which in the Landes department, we learned from the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday.

In just 24 hours, 21 new herds were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza, known as avian flu. “The virus is active and circulating. The Landes are particularly affected because of the concentration of breeding in this department, ”one explained to the ministry.

The Landes very affected

In detail, of the 151 infected farms, 94 are in the Landes, 28 in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, 16 in the Gers, eight in the North, two in Vendée and Hautes-Pyrénées and one in Lot-et-Garonne . In addition to contamination of farms, 21 cases were detected in wildlife and five backyards were affected.

France has around 20,000 poultry farms raised for meat, eggs or foie gras. The virus was first identified in breeding on November 26 on a farm in the town of Warhem (North) where 160,000 laying hens were reared all year round in buildings.

650,000 poultry slaughtered

At the end of December, bird flu had already resulted in the culling of around 650,000 poultry in one month. The results as of January 13 for the slaughter of ducks, geese and other poultry were not yet known.

Like last year, the Southwest concentrates most of the cases. In 2021, the crisis – the third since 2015 – had ended up being halted at the cost of the often preventive slaughter of more than 3.5 million poultry, mainly palmipeds.

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