French duck farmer Herve Dupouy has culled his flock four times since 2015 to stop the spread of bird flu. But as a wave of deadly outbreaks nears his farm once again, he says it’s time to accept a solution once considered taboo: vaccination.
France is on track to start vaccinating poultry in September, agriculture minister Fesneau told Reuters, before the return of migrating wild birds that can infect farms.Brussels has also normalised its poultry vaccination rules, which are due to come into force next month. They will ensure poultry products and day-old chicks can be traded freely within the bloc, a European Commission spokesperson told Reuters.
That’s why some big buyers of poultry meat and live birds have banned imports from countries where vaccines are permitted, for fear of bringing in the virus as well. Given trade restrictions on vaccinated poultry, bilateral negotiations would be needed to clear exports to those markets and avoid unfair competition, Philippe Gelin, chief executive of France’s LDCFrench minister Fesneau told Reuters that Paris was negotiating with its non-E.U. trade partners to allow exports of vaccinated poultry while there were also bilateral talks at the E.U. level with countries outside the bloc.
“This is a huge economic loss,” said Gilles Salvat, deputy director of the research division at French health security agency ANSES. “We won’t avoid occasional introductions via wildlife or via a contaminated environment, but what we want to avoid is these occasional introductions spreading throughout the country.”
France’s Ceva Animal Health, one of the main companies developing bird flu vaccines along with Germany’s Boehringher Ingelheim, said initial results were “very promising”, notably by sharply reducing the excretion of the virus by infected birds.
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