2023-10-23 16:31:52
The duck vaccination campaign against avian flu has started in Deux-Sèvres. 160 farms are affected in the department by this compulsory vaccination, which is a first. 13 were vaccinated during the first 15 days of the campaign. “The pace is consistent with what we expect and which will allow us, before Christmas, to have vaccinated all of the 160 farms targeted by the vaccination campaign,” assures Emmanuelle Dubée, the prefect of Deux-Sèvres. With one objective: to avoid the unprecedented crisis of 2022 with 88 homes of avian flu detected in the department and massive slaughters of animals.
This Monday, October 23, vaccination began at 6 a.m. in Laurent Merceron’s building in Saint-Léger-de-Montbrun. Four people from a specialized company are busy, they have 11,000 little ducks aged 17 days to be vaccinated. There is an injection for another disease to which avian flu is added this year. “My colleague swings to the right and I swing to the left”, says Haytem, equipped with a syringe that recharges automatically. There cadence is sustained. “It’s an average of 1200 to 1300 ducks per hour”Annie calculates.
“It has to be done”
The operation is carried out under the eyes of the breeder, Laurent Merceron. “It’s for us, for our future. We don’t have much choice, we have to do it”, estimates the operator installed for around thirty years in northern Deux-Sèvres. He was not affected by avian flu. “We are lucky, we have a somewhat isolated sector but for others it is essential, they will at least be able to work”.
Laurent Merceron is a breeder in Saint-Léger-de-Montbrun near Thouars. © Radio France – Noémie Guillotin
The authorities are in fact counting on this vaccine to have a “protection accrue” against avian flu. “The advantage of vaccination is that it is administered to the duck species, that is to say the one which is both the most sensitive, which with the least virus has the greatest risk to get sick. And ducks are also the ones that transmit it most easily to all other species.”explains Emmanuelle Dubée, the prefect of Deux-Sèvres who also recalls the importance of respecting biosecurity rules.
Questions still arise, particularly at the level of l’export. “We have to see in the long term how things will go. Duck is exported a lot and some countries do not want vaccinated ducks”, specifies Laurent Merceron. The United States, Canada and Japan have started to restrict their imports of French poultry. And on the cost you vaccine. “The State covers 85% for one year, after that we don’t know”.
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