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AFP, published Thursday 19 November 2020 at 18:54
About 120 swans evolving on the canals of the Belgian city of Bruges have been repaired to escape any risk of bird flu contamination, following the discovery of the first cases of epizootic in the country.
The operation, orchestrated by the municipal services, ended Thursday with the capture of several dozen of them, then taken to a shelter to be confined there, AFP journalists noted.
“It is not easy to catch them, but we must protect them from the passage of migratory birds, it is an obligation of the federal government,” said Mayor Dirk De fauw.
An outbreak of avian flu was identified on 13 November in a bird sanctuary in Ostend, not far from Bruges, leading the Belgian government to require the confinement of its birds (poultry and birds) to all those who keep them, including details. .
After the outbreak of epidemics in Russia and Kazakhstan this summer, the epidemic has recently spread to Western Europe.
The modus operandi for catching the swans in Bruges was as follows: after five days without food, the seeds were finally brought, a way to set a “trap” for them, the municipal services pointed out.
Because, focusing on food, the animals were so much easier prey to pack (especially scratch blankets) and to transport by truck to the shelter.
The capture itself took place in two days.
In Bruges, a fortified medieval city sometimes nicknamed the “Venice of the North”, the swans are the property of the city, unlike the ducks and herons, which therefore escaped captivity.
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