Introduction
France is experiencing one of the most extreme heat waves in its history, with record temperatures causing the death of hundreds of thousands of poultry across the country. According to reports from Reuters, the extreme temperatures, which exceeded 40°C (104°F), are also behind the drowning of 40 people.
Consequences of the Heat Wave
The French national weather service, Météo-France, issued a statement stating that June 24 and 25 were the hottest days recorded in France since records began in 1947. Yann Nedelec, head of ANVOL, a French poultry-sector organization, estimated that at least several hundred thousand poultry in both indoor and outdoor farms died, although he told Reuters it was too soon for a precise death count.
A chicken farmer, Clement Blanchard, based in Saint-Andre-Goule-d’Oie, a commune in Pays de la Loire, told Reuters that around 700 of his chickens had died over the span of a few days, compared to an average death rate of one or two per day. “We’re faced with the same thing with our animals as we are ourselves: they suffer enormously from the heat, and so at times like this there are abnormally high death rates,” he told Reuters.
Impact on Farms
Stéphane Delapré, a poultry breeder in Beauvoir-sur-Mer in Normandy, northwestern France, told AFP that the heat on June 22 had killed roughly half of his 17,600 chickens. “Half of the chickens died, suffocated by the heat: those that were in the buildings and also those that were under the trees,” he said. “In [my] 42-year … career, I have never seen anything like it”.
The Chamber of Agriculture in both Brittany and Pays de Loire also reported significant losses of poultry due to the heat wave.
Conclusion
The extreme heat wave in France is a stark reminder of the impacts of global warming on agriculture and society. It is essential that measures are taken to mitigate the effects of heat waves and protect human and animal life.
Source / Reference
This article was originally published on Mongabay