It was a cool and beautiful spring morning. April 2017. In the absence of an early morning, a crowd of neighbors gathered in front of the farms of Barkoxe, Domintxaine and Gabadi, so as not to be killed by the ducks, chickens and pigeons of the farmers Cathy Xabalgoiti, Jean-Mixel Berho and Bernadette Prebende. In Zuberoa the elects were placed on the front line. On other occasions, the citizens were the first to cut the step to the health administration of the DDPP huts and the gendarmes it brought with it. Despite the tear gas, all the birds were alive. Then came the lawsuits. The judgments were justified by the producer himself and economically condemned to the ELB trade union.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The charcuterie of the Lataillade family in Bidaxune also had the threats of the administration and the orders to kill duck children. The threat resumed with the duck adoption campaign. On 23 July, the Baiona court handed down a judgment against the Lataillade family, Jean-Mixel Berho and the ELB transporter union. The producers of Bidaxune were white; Berho, with a fine of EUR 300, and the union, with EUR 2,000, but with reversal. However, they soon learned that the prosecutor had called him. Since then, nothing new. Marc Lataillade: “We were bleached and called, but we haven’t been told anything officially.” Maritxu Lopepe of the ELB trade union has identified the subject of the prosecutor: “Justified by the ‘act of aggression or against the administration’, they have come out too well as the prosecutor and he has called. We don’t know when this is the case.”

Indeed, last December Bernadette Prebende, the hen and pigeon breeder of Gabadi, had a taste of this threat, as she was called to the gendarmerie, but did not leave the administration to kill her chickens. It would be linked to the call of the Baiona prosecutor. “So far it has never been questioned. What a strange three years! Since then we don’t know anything,” he says staggered.

The ELB spokesman, Panpi Sainte-Marie, has also seen the issue of the State, which claims to be trained in the political victory of mobilisation: “State pressure is tremendous. We have spent a lot of money on this issue. The State's response is revenge, saying: ‘You have won the political issue, but we will denounce it with the money’. If we did not have the support of society, we would be economically very bad.” The Northern Basque Country has only been a small island in the history of avian influenza, according to Sainte-Marie. By mass grinding of pups in other regions. “Maybe it’s been an awareness here, but other times it hasn’t. Many people tell us: “You like it, you have resisted it, because you were in favor of the solidarity of your environment.” Here, the OECD has been able to act as a bridge with citizenship, with the political class. We're not alone, and that's why we've driven that struggle. On other occasions, the FNSEA is the owner and master.”

Again in the plomu

In times of crisis, he called the clients of the Bidaxune chitería individually, threatening the administration and advising not to buy the ducks of the Bidaxun breeders. The consequence of the intimidation was that buyers of children in the Landes and in Biarno have stopped growing ducks. On the other hand, it has shrunk many buyers who made homemade ducks. “There were half a hundred children who were staying at home to grow and grow,” explains Lataill. “How do you make the house pig? Then, to sell it to relatives. It’s been less for three years, but we think they’ll start again.”

However, the farm has suffered losses. In particular, the administration intended to kill duck children in 2017. Then, the head of the DDPP department's cabal protection administration, Mr. Mesplede, who ordered the death of the ducks, undertook to compensate them for the vegetable garden they suffered. The following are still observed: "We have had neither forgiveness nor grief for the damage we have suffered. Not even compensation he promised us before the prefect.” However, the downturn in activity has not been less: In 2017 the decline is around 70-75% and in 2018 40%. But the situation has improved since: “This year we are going to recover a business similar to that of a year before the bird flu, with the ontsal.”

Unenforceable rules

The producers who managed to keep the herds alive have been subjected to very drastic medical checks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the avian influenza crises, the administration has imposed very strict rules on farmers, without distinction between large industrial crops and small house producers. Lataillade: “They impose the same rules as the big producers. However, in a small cottage like ours, it's enough to see if it's been a good streak, if the reward is good. It would choke us financially if we did everything they asked for.”

Prebenda's tests are very expensive. "What about the tests was the mensity! Only children, I wasted EUR 10,000. I was held by the chickens and the pigeons, and I was forced to run them three times. That is unacceptable! So many tests for nothing."

In addition to the additional tests, the administration requires strict rules for shelters in the huts, for groceries, for utensils. In this regard, the Gabadi estate was already in an advanced state of operation. “It was already normal, because the first time the flu occurred I made the room. But it’s a cherry tree; you have to count about 10,000 euros.” So he had no problem with the shelters. However, the rules require eggs to change every time. The manufacturer would not allow the reuse of packaging. Commonly, in the biological food shops, in Amapeta, the markets prohibit what citizens do every day: reuse the egg to throw it away. Prebenda says it's impossible: “It’s a significant expense, as each ship costs 20 cents of euro.”

Maritxu Lopepe explains how the state has tightened its rules. “If an epidemic ever occurs, measures are introduced to the upper level. One rule says that from November to February ducks have to be confined. Even in the years of the absence of disease, the peasants are forced to have a refuge for it.” They cause great salons to be built there, which are usually empty. They used to make more than one balance. Now, every time a new introduction occurs after the sale and loss, strict precautions must be followed. The most powerful producers have preferred to make a single balance in the form of “oversized buildings”. “The conclusion is that it has been an industrialization process,” says Lopepe. That is why so many small breeders have surrendered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purging business system drives industrial breeders to do so. On many occasions, ducks are being lost for a cooperative. They only lift their reward when a herd has come to their head. If the balance is never satisfactory, they may lose the prize. That's why the strongest would prefer one balance at a time, but they would come up with thousands. The reward is very simple compared to the work done. Lopepe: “A breeder told us that for fifteen days he had lost a thousand ducks and I don’t know if he had 50 euros for that work. These are very violent systems! It’s a slavery!” The flu crisis has made it stronger, with balances of up to 20,000 ducks worldwide.

According to Panpi Sainte-Marie, the FNSEA stimulating industry has learned nothing: “It’s a flight. Go deeper into the hole. The system continues to the extreme.” Being the only food of the first few days the duck, the industry has turned it into everyday common meat. Putting some farmers at your service. “The big farmers have internalised that big bastions have to be made, in which hard measures have to be applied. The proponents of this system have not questioned anything.” Arguing that for this meat there are buyers.

The problem is that nothing guarantees that the epidemic does not happen again. No serious cases have appeared in Western Europe since 2017, but what is happening in the East has given rise to many concerns. “The Ministry has reported the appearance of some alerts in eastern Europe,” explains Lopepe, “who came from there the last time. There are also Christ’s industries there!” If, for the time being, the measures have prevented redistribution, Sainte-Marie is suspicious: “We’ve had tremendous charm, because it hasn’t happened again. With this COVID-19 we see that the virus spreads through large concentrations, which have still made larger bands with ducks. Instead of being ten great, we should have a hundred small producers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one of three years ago clearly showed that local mackerel types were resistant to the virus — such as kriax. But the industry doesn't take care of that. “France works almost exclusively on a single breed of ducks. It is dramatic! Genetic diversity should be addressed. It would be the greatest guarantee to fight disease.”