Highly pathogenic avian influenza

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is a viral infection of birds that kills fast and spreads through migrating wild birds, which brings it back every fall. In France, the series began in winter 2015-2016 in the southwest, with a mandatory downtime imposed on the entire duck sector. It returned in 2016-2017 (H5N8), then in 2020-2021. The 2021-2022 wave changed scale: more than 1,300 farms infected, around 19 million birds culled according to the ministry in September 2022, and public compensation estimated at about 1.1 billion euros, health and economic components combined. That same year, the United States went through its worst epizootic: nearly 58 million birds affected in 2022 according to the USDA, across 46 states, most of them depopulated. Starting in October 2023, France vaccinated its ducks, the first campaign of that size in Europe, and outbreaks the following winter dropped sharply. For the underwriter, bird flu shows the line between what gets insured and what gets socialized. The state pays for birds culled by order and part of the economic loss; the FMSE adds to it; the private market offers business interruption and epizootic mortality covers, with limited capacity and per-season aggregates. Geographic correlation drives most of the price: in the Landes in 2022, outbreaks numbered in the hundreds within a radius of a few dozen kilometers. Vaccination changes frequency, but it carries its own trade effects, as some third countries restricted imports of vaccinated poultry.