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France: Poulty

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France suspects bird flu at turkey farm

Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:53 AM ET
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http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-23T145251Z_01_PAB002370_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-FRANCE-FARM.xml&archived=False

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PARIS (Reuters) - France has found a suspected outbreak of H5N1 bird flu at a turkey farm in the east of the country, the farm ministry said on Thursday.

If confirmed, it would be the first case of the virus in domestic farmed birds in the European Union.

The ministry said a high mortality rate among turkeys was discovered at the farm, which has more than 11,000 birds and is situated in the department of l'Ain, where two cases of the disease have already been confirmed in wild ducks.

Test results are due on Friday, it added.

The farm has been cordoned off and all birds will be culled. The ministry said a security zone of three km (two miles) had been set up around the farm as is usual under the European Union emergency measures.

Germany reported earlier that a second series of tests on a duck on a farm in the northern Baltic Sea island of Ruegen had proved negative for the bird flu disease.

France has said it planned to vaccinate some 900,000 farmed geese and ducks in three departments thought most at risk from the H5N1 virus and that could not be kept inside. Media reports have estimated the cost of the program at 1.6 million euros.
 
Suspected bird flu decimates French poultry farm

Suspected bird flu decimates French poultry farm

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/ne...002917Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-238071-3.xml

Suspected bird flu decimates French poultry farm
Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:37 AM IST


VERSAILLEUX, France (Reuters) - France said on Thursday a suspected outbreak of H5N1 bird flu had decimated thousands of turkeys at a farm in the east of the country, and the government pledged 52 million euros ($62.19 million) in new aid.

If confirmed, the case would mark the first time the virus has spread to domestic farm birds in the European Union and could deal a heavy blow to France's already battered six billion euros-a-year poultry industry, the biggest in the bloc.

The Farms Ministry said a high mortality rate among turkeys was discovered at the farm, which has more than 11,000 birds and is situated in the department of Ain, where two cases of the disease have already been confirmed in wild ducks.

Local sources said around 80 percent of the birds at the farm, which is in a region famous for the quality of its chickens, had already died. Test results are due on Friday.

The farm has been cordoned off and all remaining turkeys were to be culled, the ministry said.

Authorities said they were also investigating seven dead hens found abandoned at a roadside in southeast France. The authorities in Lozere said tests were under way and a police probe had been launched.

Farms Minister Dominique Bussereau held emergency talks on the deepening crisis with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who announced fresh aid to the sector.

"I fully realise the extent to which this is a hardship for all poultry breeders in our country," Villepin told reporters after the meeting. "We will have to adapt aid as the situation develops."

VACCINATION

A security zone of three km and a surveillance zone of seven km had been set up around the farm as is usual under European Union emergency measures.

"For the moment it's just a suspicion but we have to kill off the flock this afternoon, even before we have the final results, so that we are in line with international rules," Bussereau told the Senate.

All movement within the security area had been restricted, and all vehicles would be disinfected.

"As a precautionary measure, we will completely close off the initial three kilometre security zone. We will only let residents in," said local police chief Christophe Perret.

France has said it planned to vaccinate some 900,000 farm geese and ducks in three departments thought most at risk from the H5N1 virus and where they could not be kept inside. Media reports have estimated the cost of the programme at 1.6 million euros ($1.91 million).

Bussereau said he was discussing with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin whether it would be possible to vaccinate poultry in the departments that make up the Bresse region in eastern France as well.

He said the latest case highlighted the importance of stepping up border surveillance.

French poultry producers have estimated a 30 percent drop in sales since the bird flu crisis started in November at a cost of 130 million euros to the sector, Bussereau said.

Villepin announced a government aid package worth 52 million euros for the poultry sector to cope with the crisis. The aid will cover 20 million euros for farmers, 30 million for companies in the sector and two million euros for a campaign to promote the consumption of chicken.
 
Panic in France

Panic in France

France fights panic in wake of bird flu confirmation

ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer
February 25, 2006 12:50 PM

PARIS (AP) - French President Jacques Chirac urged consumers not to panic Saturday, hours after the government announced the European Union's first outbreak of deadly bird flu in commercial poultry.

Chirac said chickens and eggs remained safe to eat as he munched a piece of the famously succulent chicken from the Ain region, where the lethal virus was confirmed in turkeys.

Panic among consumers is ''totally unjustified,'' Chirac said during a visit to open the annual Paris Agriculture Fair. ''The virus in question ... is automatically destroyed by cooking. So there is absolutely no danger.''

Yet fear already was setting in, raising worries for a multibillion-dollar industry that makes France the premier poultry producer among the EU's 25 nations.

Japan's decision Friday to suspend imports of French poultry and poultry products, including foie gras, signaled the potential impact even before the confirmation that the deadly H5N1 virus had decimated a farm of more than 11,000 turkeys at Versailleux in southeastern France.

Japan imported 1,664 tons of duck and other poultry meat and 416 tons of internal organs, including foie gras, from France in 2005.

In France itself, there has been a drop of up to 30 percent in poultry purchases in recent weeks. Chirac noted the ''economic and social consequences'' of panic and said the French must not fall into such a trap.

The lethal strain has spread from Asia to at least 10 European countries and Africa, and scientists fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic. The disease has killed at least 93 people, mostly in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia recorded its 20th human death from bird flu Saturday, as China reported two new cases of human infection and India said two poultry farms in western Gujarat state had been contaminated by the virus in that nation's second known outbreak.

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in the EU.

French authorities sealed off the infected turkey farm Thursday. The farm's veterinarian said nearly all the 11,000 birds there were sick and hundreds had died. Surviving birds were slaughtered.

The farmer's family was quarantined and vehicles passing through a protection zone around the farm were required to ride through a 100-foot-long trough of disinfectant.

News that bird flu had spread to farm stocks was particularly bitter for France, which has been working for months to prevent and prepare for an outbreak.

France has some 200,000 farms that raise 900 million birds each year. In 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, the French poultry sector generated more than $3.6 billion in revenues - more than 20 percent of the EU's total poultry production.

The head of France's powerful farm union, Jean-Michel Lemetayer, asked Chirac to demand financial aid from the EU.

Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said Friday that authorities were perplexed about how the virus appeared in commercial poultry despite precautionary measures.

The farm is located in a protection zone set up after two wild ducks died and were confirmed infected with H5N1. There was speculation the outbreak may have been caused by duck droppings on straw placed in the turkey pens, France's Poultry Industry Association said.

Claude Lassus, the veterinarian for the Versailleux farm, told France-Info radio Friday that he believed the straw theory was the only explanation for the infection.

Authorities in the eastern German state of Brandenburg said Saturday that two wild birds had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first cases in that part of Germany.

The state's Agriculture Ministry said the two dead birds - a swan and a duck - were found around the town of Schwedt, northeast of Berlin and close to the border with Poland.
---
Associated Press writer Emmanuel Georges-Picot contributed to this report.
AP-WS-02-25-06 1549EST
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564688079710196446
 
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