Avian Influenza: Restricted Area Lifted, Despite Four Remaining Outbreaks

The restricted area established in southwestern France as part of the strategy to combat highly pathogenic avian influenza is being lifted today, September 15, 2016. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, this decision received a favorable opinion from the European Union during a meeting of the technical committee in Brussels. However, two protection zones and surveillance zones remain in place following the recent occurrence of isolated outbreaks in the Dordogne and the Aveyron.   Since November 24, 2015—the date of the first outbreak of avian influenza detected in a family backyard flock in Biras (Dordogne)—cases of infection have multiplied in France. As of August 8, 2016, a total of 81 outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry had been recorded in ten departments in southwestern France. Within the restricted area, biosecurity measures were implemented at all waterfowl farms (restrictions on animal movement, gradual depopulation, sanitation through cleaning and disinfection, and general barn fallowing lasting until May 16). This extensive control program appears to have brought the epizootic under control. The current objective is to regain “disease-free” status in order to reassure the French poultry industry’s customer countries. As part of the enhanced surveillance plan launched in late May with a view to lifting the restricted area, two outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5) were confirmed in the Aveyron department: the first on July 19, 2016, at a farm with 2,080 ducks ready for force-feeding and 2,917 ducklings in Vareilles; the second on August 5 at a farm with 11,000 ducks ready for force-feeding in Cruejouls. In the Dordogne, two outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) were also detected: one on July 18, 2016, at a farm with 4,400 free-range chickens located in Ladornac, the other on July 25 at a farm with 24,000 ducks ready for force-feeding, in the same town, 400 m from the first outbreak. “The recent identification of these four residual outbreaks does not call into question the effectiveness of the eradication strategy implemented on the ground ,” the ministry emphasized. The restricted area was therefore lifted following a comprehensive survey conducted over approximately three months : poultry farms located outside the protection and surveillance zones underwent clinical inspection, and restocked waterfowl farms were subjected to clinical inspections and sampling for serological and/or virological screening, depending on the stage of production, throughout the entire zone. According to Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll, “the fight against the risk of a resurgence of the avian influenza virus must continue actively in order to restore—and maintain—France’s disease-free status as quickly as possible. Active surveillance of at-risk production facilities must continue, as must efforts to implement and maintain appropriate biosecurity measures on farms.”