A “highly pathogenic” outbreak of avian flu detected in a farm in Eure

A new outbreak of bird flu has been detected "in a domestic poultry farm" in La Poterie-Mathieu (Eure), according to a prefectural decree published on Saturday, around ten days after the national risk level was lowered.

"Highly pathogenic", this outbreak of avian influenza, detected on Friday, requires "immediate eradication measures" of the poultry concerned, according to the order posted online on the prefecture's website on Saturday.

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With this order, the Eure prefecture also placed eight nearby towns in a "protection zone" and 46 others in a "surveillance zone", confirming information from the regional daily Ouest-France.

These two areas form a "regulated zone" where poultry "must be sheltered". "Only people essential to the running of the farm" are authorized to enter the establishments where the poultry are located, in order "to limit the risk of spreading the disease", according to the order.

On December 17, the French Ministry of Agriculture announced that it was lowering the risk level for bird flu to "free" in mainland France, as no new outbreaks had been reported in the previous month.

Since August, France has been placed at "high" risk and the lowering of this risk level has opened up "more favorable prospects for (the) French poultry farming sectors".

Twenty-six European countries have detected the presence of avian influenza viruses on their territory since August 1, according to a bulletin from the French animal health epidemiosurveillance platform.

The virus is still circulating among wild birds in Europe, particularly in migration corridors, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

A first serious case of bird flu has also been detected in humans in the United States, American health authorities announced on Wednesday.

The epizootic – the equivalent of an epidemic in animals – which is raging from the Americas to Australia, affected France from 2015 to 2017 and then almost continuously since the end of 2020.

The country has euthanized tens of millions of poultry in recent years, with economic losses running into billions of euros.