Overview
- The Ministry of Agriculture said ANSES confirmed Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in Seignosse, marking the pest’s first detection in France.
- Prefect Étienne Guyot established a delimited area with a 500‑meter infested core across Seignosse, Angresse, Saubion and Soorts‑Hossegor and a 20‑kilometer buffer spanning 42 Landes and 10 Pyrénées‑Atlantiques communes.
- The order blocks the circulation of susceptible plants, wood and bark and suspends logging and other forest operations in the zone, with infested trees to be felled, shredded and burned.
- Officials say the nematode kills pines by blocking sap flow and is spread locally by Monochamus beetles, with winter vector dormancy lowering short‑term dispersal risk and no danger to human or animal health.
- Classified by the EU as a priority quarantine organism, the pest has prior EU detections in Portugal (1999) and Spain (2008), and DRAAF is intensifying surveillance across roughly 36,000 hectares of conifer stands in the delimited area.