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A new outbreak of avian flu has been detected “in a domestic poultry farm” in La Poterie-Mathieu (Eure). Illustrative photo.
FRANCE – A nasty surprise just after Christmas. While the risk of avian flu had been lowered to the “free” level in France, a new “highly pathogenic” outbreak was discovered in Normandy, in the commune of La Poterie-Mathieu. According to a decree published this Saturday, December 28, “immediate eradication measures” affected poultry are necessary.
By this decree, the Eure prefecture also placed eight nearby municipalities in “protection zone” and 46 others in “surveillance zone”. These two areas form a “restricted area” where the poultry “must be sheltered”. “Only people essential to running the farm” are authorized to enter establishments where poultry are located, in order to “to limit the risk of spreading the disease”according to the decree.
On December 17, the French Ministry of Agriculture announced that it was lowering the risk level linked to avian flu to “unharmed” in the metropolitan area, no new outbreak having been declared during the previous month. Since August, France has been placed at risk ” pupil “ and the lowering of this level of risk made it possible to open “more favorable prospects for (the) sectors” French poultry farms.
A first serious human case observed in the United States
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 epidemiological surveillance 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 avian flu has also been detected in humans in the United States, American health authorities announced on Wednesday. The virus would have mutated inside its body to adapt to the human respiratory tract. These changes have not been observed in contaminated birds, including those with which the patient may have been in contact in a farmyard.
Experts contacted by AFP said it was too early to determine whether these changes could allow the virus to spread more easily, or cause more serious cases in humans.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.fr
