2023-10-06 05:27:40
Highly pathogenic avian influenza affected the country of foie gras from 2015 to 2017 then almost continuously since the end of 2020. After an unprecedented crisis (32 million poultry slaughtered since the summer of 2021), the government decided to make the vaccination in farms of more than 250 ducks, excluding breeding ducks, from October 1 to try to stop its spread. However, this prevention campaign is of concern to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Vaccination “can mask infection with the avian flu virus […] and thus allow the export of live infected animals or products contaminated with the virus to the United States,” explained the ministry. The country has therefore banned imports from France of live poultry, hatching eggs – intended to produce future chicks or ducklings – as well as unprocessed poultry meat. Poultry products cooked or cooked so that the virus is destroyed can still be imported with proper documentation, the USDA said.
Bresse poultry and foie gras
Unable to guarantee that vaccinated ducks – and therefore potentially healthy carriers of the disease – do not circulate freely within European countries members of the common market, the United States has also restricted imports of live ducks and raw products from the bird. coming from this area. Canada, for its part, “temporarily” suspended the importation of live poultry, hatching eggs, and fresh, frozen or raw poultry products from France while continuing to authorize “heat-treated, cooked or processed” products. canned,” the Canadian food inspection agency said in a statement.
“We do not know whether meat from vaccinated ducks can be exported to other countries, nor how France will identify, trace and control vaccinated breeding animals,” it is justified. Japan, as expected, also imposed restrictions. The volumes involved on the scale of the sector “are not enormous”, indicates Yann Nédélec. According to French customs, in the “live poultry and eggs” category, exports to the United States, for example, represented only 1% of France’s total exports. But products with very high added value, such as poultry from Bresse to Japan, are affected, notes the Anvol representative.
Virus monitoring
The restrictions are also problematic for the genetics sector, which includes hatching eggs and day-old poultry sent to other farms for the production of table eggs or broiler poultry, the official said, adding that emphasizing that France is recognized for its know-how in rustic strains or organic labels.
A virus surveillance system, in particular to reassure countries which fear that the virus is circulating quietly in farms, has been put in place, indicates Yann Nédélec. “When we receive all the necessary documents confirming that the vaccination, surveillance and movement control strategy will not increase the risk of avian flu […]we will be able to remove or reduce restrictions linked to avian flu,” the American ministry stressed.
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