By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS (Reuters) - French poultry producers pledged to delay new duck and geese rearing to contain a bird flu virus outbreak which has spread in the southwest of the country, the farm ministry said.
The highly pathogenic virus was found this week at a farm located outside a broad restriction zone set up last month to stop the spread of the disease that led a growing number of countries to ban French poultry products.
The plan was endorsed by farm ministry officials at a meeting with sector representatives on Thursday. It will be submitted next week to the European Commission for approval.
Producers proposed to suspend new rearing starting from Jan. 18 and to wait for all farms, slaughterhouses and production equipment in the region to be cleaned and disinfected before resuming it, the ministry said.
Farms where rearing has already started would be allowed to continue production until the animals are culled.
"This plan will allow the re-establishment of healthy ducklings, in sanitised farms, by the end of the first half. Production will then be able to resume to ensure production for the year-end celebrations in good conditions," the ministry said in a statement.
Bird flu emerged in France at an awkward time for farmers and food firms in the southwest, the country's main foie gras producing region, as the year-end holidays represent a period of peak demand for poultry meat and specialities such as foie gras, which is made from duck or goose liver.
France, the European Union's largest agricultural producer, has recorded 69 outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu in eight administrative departments in the southwest of the country since late November, farm ministry data showed.
Bird flu cannot be transmitted to humans through food. Some viruses have infected humans, but initial results showed that the strains found in France posed no risk of being caught by humans, the farm minister has said.
The planned delay in new rearing will inevitably lead to a drop in output but it was difficult to estimate at this stage how big it would be, a ministry official said, adding that a large number of producers had sold their birds before Christmas and started rearing new ones since then.
Breeding takes around 12 to 15 weeks and complete cleansing and disinfection between three and four weeks, he said.
Despite the spread of the disease, the number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu has slowed in France since late December, with only five reported since the start of the year, the farm ministry's website showed.
More than a dozen countries including Japan - the world's largest importer of foie gras - imposed restrictions on French poultry products, live animals or hatching eggs after the bird flu outbreaks, which were found mainly in ducks and chickens.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Adrian Croft)