2023-10-05 04:46:00
the essentials While the vaccination of ducks once morest avian flu was launched at the start of the week, some are concerned regarding the effects it might have on the animal and its meat. Unfounded fears according to poultry professionals.
Mandatory since Sunday October 1, the duck vaccination campaign once morest avian flu began the next day. It concerns farms with more than 250 animals, and all ducks, whether they are raised for foie gras or for meat.
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And who says vaccination campaign sometimes means distrust within the population. Japan has already announced that it will suspend imports of French poultry products following the launch of the vaccination campaign. Some French people are also concerned regarding the effects that the administration of the product might have on the animal and therefore indirectly on the consumer; others are even calling for a boycott of duck meat.
“I vaccinated 20,000 yesterday and for the moment, nothing to report,” reassures Vincent Blondel, poultry veterinarian in Gers, interviewed by The Dispatch. “They are a little tired, just like us following a vaccination. But when we release them, they go straight to drinking and eating,” he continues. According to him, the vaccine, “very fluid” is “easy to inject” and therefore well tolerated by the web-footed animals.
A vaccine that has already proven itself
Concerning any effect that the injections might have on the meat, Vincent Blondel assures thatthere is nothing to worry regarding. “The product is injected very early in the animal’s life. In the meantime, it will gain two to three times its weight. The vaccine is a long way off when we consume the duck,” explains the veterinarian. Ducklings receive their first injection from 10 days of age to a maximum of 21 days of life. The second injection should be given between 18 and 23 days following the first.
The regulations are extremely strict according to the caregiver: “It is very complicated to have a marketing authorization today, laboratories do not have the right to make mistakes.” The vaccine injected into ducks since Monday has been administered “since 2010 in Mexico”, specifies Vincent Blondel: “No problems or deaths among consumers have been reported so far.” The product “has already proven itself elsewhere”, in Asia and the Middle East, where it is mainly administered to chickens, confirmed to AFP Jocelyn Marguerie, veterinarian and president of the avian commission of the SNGTV veterinary association. .
Make sure you eat “healthy meat”
Vaccination of waterflies once morest avian flu and other pathologies is, according to Vincent Blondel, necessary to ensure they eat “healthy meat”. It “helps reduce the use of antibiotics. Thanks to it, ducks rarely get sick, they are less affected by bacterial infections,” he explains.
Concerning the current campaign, increased monitoring of waterflies is being put in place. The breeder must take samples “every week” to check that the avian influenza virus is not circulating within his farm at low noise. Once a month, the veterinarian also comes to take a sample, “to avoid any bias”, specifies Vincent Blondel.
Around 60 million ducks must be vaccinated once morest bird flu by this summer. France is currently the only European country to have implemented this health measure in the face of this virus which has become endemic on the continent. As relayed 20 minutes, Marie-Pierre Pée, director of the Interprofessional Committee for Foie Gras Palmipeds, is counting on “bilateral health diplomacy” to convince reluctant countries to change their minds a few weeks before Christmas, a strategic period for export. “The road is still long,” she admits. “All the countries are watching us.”
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