Since November 9, the Ministry of Agriculture has placed France at high risk for avian flu. A decision which results from the recent appearance of the virus on French farms and which involves the compulsory confinement of poultry. Free-range farming once again becomes the scapegoat
deplores the Confédération paysanne des Deux-Sèvres, in a press release published this Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
The consequences are serious for these extensive self-sufficient farms for which the health logic is based on low densities, small quantities of poultry and open air. These farms, although little affected by avian flu, are in danger because of the rules for managing the disease. This law applies every winter even though it is not based on any prior scientific study.
estimates the agricultural union.
An experiment a source of hope
Its members say place all our hopes in the experimentation which is underway in small free-range farms in the hope of eventually (May 2025) modifying the regulations. This study, requested by breeders and granted by the Ministry of Agriculture, will hopefully be sufficiently impartial to measure the benefits of the outdoors.
For ten years, we note that the obligation of confinement does not solve the problem of avian flu which almost always occurs on farms where the poultry are already confined. The industrial production model having very different practices from small outdoor farms, they cannot be subject to the same rules.
Morocco
