France Is Slaughtering 600,000 Ducks To Prevent The Spread Of Bird Flu
France Is Slaughtering 600,000 Ducks To Prevent The Spread Of Bird Flu
France and Hungary have been hit hard with the avian flu, H5N8, in the last three months, resulting in the mass culling of hundreds of thousands of ducks in France's foie gras region. Find out more here.
France and Hungary have been hit hard with the avian flu, H5N8, in the last three months, resulting in the mass culling of hundreds of thousands of ducks in France's foie gras region. Find out more here.
France has announced that 600,000 more ducks will have to be killed in the Landes region of southwestern France, famous for its production of foie gras.
About three months ago, France began culling populations of ducks in an attempt to slow or stop the spread of H5N8, the avian flu. France is already estimated to have killed or culled 3.2 million ducks in an effort to prevent H5N8's spread and promised to slow down the culling of birds once the virus slowed its spread. Unfortunately, the number of infected birds has continued to rise in spite of efforts, and the culling must continue. According to French Farming Minister Stephane Le Foll:
We have already culled a lot of ducks in the eastern bit of that area. We know that there is still an area remaining where we will have to take action to cull all the ducks.
Stephane Le Foll
Reuters, February 21, 2017
While this will negatively impact the profits of foie gras producers, the good news is that the virus does not spread through consumption of infected animals, and so the ducks will still be edible.
But now, what we'd like to know is...
Would you eat duck that had the avian flu?
Would you eat duck that had the avian flu?