Several hundred thousand poultry have died in recent days in France due to extreme heat. Rendering services are overwhelmed and on-farm burial is being considered.
Farmers in the Bretagne and Pays de la Loire regions, which account for nearly 60 percent of France’s poultry stock, report significant deaths. Stéphane Delapré, a farmer in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, told AFP he lost about half his chickens yesterday, suffocated by temperatures reaching 40-41°C.
Clément Blanchard, a farmer in Pays de la Loire, lost around 700 birds in a few days. Yann Nedelec of the ANVOL organization estimates at least several hundred thousand poultry have died in indoor and outdoor farms.
France is the European Union’s third-largest poultry producer. Carcass volumes exceed the capacity of usual collection services, leading authorities to consider on-farm burial after inspections.
