A weapon to limit the risk of spread. The vaccination campaign against avian influenza will be launched “the first week of October”, confirmed Thursday the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, during a visit to a duck farm in La-Roche-sur -Yon (Vendée). “A new stage is being prepared”, underlined the Minister, congratulating breeders and veterinarians for their “commitment and their involvement in this upcoming campaign”.
Vaccination will apply “compulsorily” to all commercial duck farms, both “mulard ducks” (bred for foie gras) and “Barbary” or “Beijing”, according to the ministry. 64 million ducks are currently affected. The state will support “nearly 85% of this operation of 94 million euros,” said Thursday Marc Fesneau.
Vaccination is prohibited in breeding duck farms for all those whose production is intended for export in order “not to block certain trade flows”, the ministry explained in July.
“Enormous stress every year”
“For vaccination, the sooner the better. The earlier we vaccinate, the lower the risk of a new devastating wave for farms,” said Brice Guyau, president of the FDSEA in Vendée. Nine million poultry had been slaughtered at the beginning of 2022 in the department, and more than 2 million in the fall of the same year.
The Minister of Agriculture also confirmed that the compensation for breeders would be recalibrated “with the desire to shorten the deadlines, to try to compensate continuously”. According to figures from the ministry, “86% of down payment requests were processed for the 2022-2023 crisis, for a total amount paid of 37.2 million euros”.
“It is now a huge stress every year. We follow each evolution of dead animals in the area, wondering if it will not end up passing our doors, ”explained Bruno Beneyton, breeder of 24,000 ducks, who welcomed the minister’s visit on Thursday.
Marc Fesneau also assured that “discussions with reluctant countries (to vaccination) are continuing”, counting only “three or four” States in this case. “We have to manage to get everyone on board (…) To convince that the process we have started is a completely secure process and that therefore we can continue to export,” he added.