Avian flu: the government is reducing prevention and surveillance measures

While no outbreak of avian flu has been detected in France for a month, certain prevention and surveillance devices deployed in poultry farms will be reduced, the government announced on Wednesday. In Pays de la Loire, Brittany and Deux-Sèvres, regions particularly exposed to avian influenza, monitoring of waterfowl (ducks, geese) “is reduced by halving the samples to be taken from these animals”, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

In less exposed areas, called "free", palmipeds "may be authorized to go out on a reduced outdoor route (...) if criteria of high outdoor temperatures on several successive days are observed". Last November, the government decided to strengthen protective measures by confining free-range poultry throughout France in an attempt to stem the epizootic.

In 2021-2022, the epizootic had led to the slaughter of 22 million poultry in France and had caused the disarray of the agricultural world. France had observed an “endemization” of the virus among local wildlife, whereas the virus arrived rather earlier by migratory birds. Since March 14, no case has been identified in French farms, after the detection of a last outbreak in the Center-Val-de-Loire.

The few cases detected in wildlife are "almost anecdotal", indicated ANSES in early April. The government, however, calls for vigilance and stresses that "if mortalities in wildlife have fallen sharply in France, they remain significant in Europe".

Temperatures, in particular, are not yet high enough “to permanently eliminate the virus from the environment and the migrations of wild birds continue, constituting an additional risk factor”, underlines the press release. Over the 2022-2023 season, more than 300 outbreaks were detected on farms.