France will soon try two vaccines against bird flu. This was announced after the 62nd outbreak of bird flu, this time on a duck farm in the south of the country.
According to French Agriculture Minister Julien Normandie, vaccination will in the long run be the only real medicine against the recurring animal disease. Already this week Normandie is holding discussions with the poultry sector about the first trials.
It is not yet known when the French want to start with it. According to him, the use of the vaccine should not be a taboo because there are no alternative long-term solutions.
In addition, Normandie plans to convince his European counterparts to standardize this French vaccination across the EU. Next Monday, the LNV ministers of the 27 EU countries will meet in Brussels. That meeting will be chaired for the first time by Minister Normandie himself, as France will chair the EU in the first half of 2022.
At the end of November, the first sick animals were found in France, very close to the Belgian border, and on December 16, the first outbreak was registered in a dung pine nursery in the department of Gers.
The current flu wave is the fourth epidemic wave to hit the country since 2015. Last year there were nearly 500 outbreaks on French farms that involved the culling of 3.5 million animals, mostly ducks.