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How Do You Fight Bird Flu in France? Vaccinate 64 Million Ducks. How Do You Fight Bird Flu in France? Vaccinate 64 Million Ducks.
(about 4 hours later)
To protect its flocks and its foie gras from the ravages of bird flu, France has begun a mass vaccination of 64 million ducks.To protect its flocks and its foie gras from the ravages of bird flu, France has begun a mass vaccination of 64 million ducks.
The campaign, which started this week, aims to prevent the spread of a deadly variant of avian influenza that has forced French farmers to cull more than 30 million birds in the past three years, contributing to a downturn in the production of foie gras.The campaign, which started this week, aims to prevent the spread of a deadly variant of avian influenza that has forced French farmers to cull more than 30 million birds in the past three years, contributing to a downturn in the production of foie gras.
“A real glimmer of hope,” Éric Dumas, a duck farmer and the president of France’s foie gras federation, said in a statement after the agriculture minister, Marc Fesneau, visited his farm near Bordeaux to inaugurate the campaign.“A real glimmer of hope,” Éric Dumas, a duck farmer and the president of France’s foie gras federation, said in a statement after the agriculture minister, Marc Fesneau, visited his farm near Bordeaux to inaugurate the campaign.
But the bird vaccination program, which Mr. Fesneau described as the first in the European Union, has led to a quick reaction from the United States, which said it would restrict imports of ducks and other poultry from Europe. “France’s decision to vaccinate presents a risk” of introducing the disease into the United States, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.But the bird vaccination program, which Mr. Fesneau described as the first in the European Union, has led to a quick reaction from the United States, which said it would restrict imports of ducks and other poultry from Europe. “France’s decision to vaccinate presents a risk” of introducing the disease into the United States, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
In recent years the disease, known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, has spread through poultry farms across the globe, causing the deaths of nearly 60 million farmed birds in the United States alone.
In France, farmers had already tried to counter the spread of the flu by adding health checks, reducing the density of birds on the farms and culling. In 2022, those efforts led to a 35 percent drop in the number of ducks available to produce foie gras compared with the year before, according to the foie gras committee.