- Title: Ducks are culled in southwest France due to bird flu outbreak
- Date: 6th January 2017
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - NOVEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE MINISTRY
- Embargoed: 21st January 2017 12:00
- Keywords: bird flu avian culling ducks farm agriculture
- Location: LATRILLE, BUANES & PARIS, FRANCE
- City: LATRILLE, BUANES & PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Environment,Nature/Wildlife
- Reuters ID: LVA0055XY05ZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: ++EDITORS PLEASE NOTE, THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES++
Thousands of ducks were culled across three regions of France most affected by a severe bird flu outbreak on Friday (January 6), as the country attempted to contain the virus which has been spreading quickly over the past month.
All free range ducks, as well as geese, were to be slaughtered between January 5 and approximately January 20 in an area in southwestern France comprising parts of the Gers, Landes and Hautes-Pyrenees administrative departments, the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
On a farm in Latrille in the Lande department on Friday, workers wearing protective clothes and masks could be seen culling ducks by placing them in an asphyxiating machine.
France, which has the largest poultry flock in the European Union, has reported 89 outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus so far, a majority of which are in the Gers.
"This virus is very aggressive in poultry, the symptoms appear quickly, it impacts the nervous system, animals show very strong symptoms of inflammation. So we need to act quickly; it is a race against the virus," Bruno Ferreira, an agriculture ministry official in charge of the supply chain, said on Thursday.
Some 800,000 of the birds, out of a total population of around 18 million in the whole of the southwest, will be culled in the coming week, Marie-Pierre Pe from foie gras makers group CIFOG told Reuters.
It could rise further if the bird flu virus cannot be maintained, she said, stressing that there are 1.3 million birds in the targeted area.
Some farms will be exempted, including those which confine birds and those that perform full production cycles, from ducklings to transformation into end-products, the ministry said.
The ministry could also stop preventive culling before the January 20 deadline if the outbreak was to stabilise, a ministry official said.
Southwestern France, home to most producers of foie gras made of duck and geese liver, was the centre of a severe outbreak of bird flu last year, although that involved other strains of the virus. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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