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The windswept cliffs of Rouzic Island are expected to teem with gannets, but an unseasonable wave of avian flu on France’s Atlantic coast devastated their numbers this summer, alarming conservationists and poultry farmers.
Thousands of seabirds have died along the western coasts of France in recent weeks from viral infection, which usually strikes during the autumn and winter months, raising concerns that it may have become a year-round risk and endemic to the French wildlife.
This poses a danger to the French poultry industry, the second largest in the European Union, which was forced to kill more than 19 million birds between November and May due to avian flu, as it is formally called avian flu.
DEADLY FLU WITH BIRDS RETURNS EARLIER THAN EXPECTED IN THE MIDWEST
“Avian flu affects seabirds in the spring and summer, which is totally new. Traditionally, avian flu mainly affects waterfowl during the winter,” Pascal Provost, director of the Sept Archipelago Ornithological Reserve. Iles which includes the island of Rouzic.
After a brief lull in outbreaks on farms in May, the French government eased the curbs on poultry farms in June.
However, soon after, the virus struck flocks along the Brittany coast, slowly spreading south.
Dead gannets litter the Perros-Guirec coast in Brittany, France on September 5, 2022, as bird flu wreaks havoc around the world.
(REUTERS / Stephane Mahe)
Rouzic is home to one of the rare colonies in the world of northern gannets. Provosts said bird flu has ravaged the flock since early July, killing adults and leaving their chicks to starve.
Since the end of July, seven new outbreaks of avian flu have been confirmed on French farms, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“The situation is exceptional – never seen before in France – due to its scale and the period in which cases are detected,” the ministry said on its website, warning of the risk of contamination for poultry farms.
AVIAN INFLUENZA SUSPECTED TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THOUSANDS OF DEAD SEA BIRDS WASHED ON THE EAST COAST OF CANADA
French poultry farmers are still recovering from previous outbreaks and the mass culling that followed, and before the latest outbreaks already faced a nearly 10% drop in production this year, industrial group Anvol said. .
“Previously, avian flu outbreaks were caused by migratory birds, but now we see more and more cases in French wildlife. This is new and worries farmers and the entire poultry industry,” the president told Reuters. by Anvol Jean-Michel Schaeffer.
Avian influenza is usually transmitted by the feces of infected migratory wild birds or by direct contact with contaminated feed, clothing and equipment.
