Italy placed 16 of its 27 largest cities on red alert on Wednesday as an intense heatwave continued to grip the country and much of Western Europe, while French authorities grappled with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of poultry caused by extreme temperatures.
Italy’s health ministry added the city of Latina to the highest heat alert, joining Ancona, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Frosinone, Milan, Perugia, Pescara, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Verona, Venice and Viterbo.
The ministry said Bari will also move to the maximum alert level on Thursday, bringing the total number of cities on red alert to 17.
Italy’s warning system ranges from green, indicating no alert, through yellow and orange, before reaching red, which signifies that the heat poses a health risk to the general population rather than only vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with existing illnesses.
In France, agricultural bodies said extreme heat had killed at least several hundred thousand poultry, overwhelming carcass collection services in the country’s two largest poultry-producing regions.
Yann Nedelec, head of French poultry industry group ANVOL, said excess poultry deaths were occurring on both indoor and outdoor farms in Brittany and Pays de la Loire, which together account for nearly 60% of France’s poultry flock. He said it was too early to provide a definitive figure but estimated that at least several hundred thousand birds had died.
The Chambers of Agriculture in both regions warned of “massive” poultry losses, saying rendering services were unable to cope with the volume of carcasses awaiting collection.
Farmers were advised to cover carcasses with sawdust or wood shavings to absorb liquids while awaiting collection or burial. Agricultural bodies said on-farm burials could only take place after technical and environmental checks.
The poultry losses come as Western Europe endures a record-setting heatwave that has killed dozens of people, forced school closures, disrupted electricity supplies and prompted farmers to harvest grain at night. France recorded a temperature of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with extreme conditions expected to continue in the coming days.
France is the European Union’s third-largest poultry producer after Poland and Spain. According to FranceAgriMer, a typical French poultry house contains around 20,000 birds, while the average farm operates two poultry houses.
