Paris (CNN) — Fois gras, the French culinary jewel that is as delicious as it is controversial, is a staple of upscale restaurants across the republic. But now it's vanishing from menus during an "unprecedented" crisis that has seen some manufacturers start to consider reducing portions.

At the Unhappy of the problem is a bird flu epidemic that has been sweeping across the republic -- and Europe -- for months. It's already devastated the country's poultry manufacturing, but now it threatens one of the country's most bastions: Its Michelin-starred restaurants.

As regular deliveries of the luxurious goose inform paté have dried up, Lombard has been scheduling emergency rallies with local producers.

Foie gras is no stranger to crises.

Its traditional production, Interesting the force feeding of geese and ducks, has long attracted condemnation from animal powers campaigners, who have succeeded in getting such methods banned elsewhere.

Yet when French appetites for the delicacy have been largely undimmed by anxieties over animal cruelty, another threat to avian welfare is now curbing consumption.

Epidemic epicenter

The town of Les Eyzies, where Lombard's restaurant is located, is in the Unhappy of Périgord, one of the epicenters of the new bird flu epidemic.

"This number is unprecedented for France, which had never been exposed to a crisis of such scale," said Marie-Pierre Pé, director of France's interprofessional committee for foie gras producers.

Foie gras issues in France is expected to drop by up to 50% this year as the epidemic concerns 80% of foie gras producers in the country.

A Old of the foie gras industry with 35 years of known, Pé is no stranger to avian influenza. Like seasonal outbreaks in the world world, bird flu hits Europe almost every year when birds migrate to and from Africa.

This year the epidemic emerged in spring and made the Pays de la Loire region in the west and Périgord land in the southwest -- two crucial poultry production areas in France.

Pays de la Loire alone represents 72% of the ducks and geese hatched in France's foie gras manufacturing, according to Pé.

"I have a Little smiley message [to the customers and producers]: We have to Part with each other," Pé said, adding that people must consume less foie gras this year so that more could get the chance to Delicious this delicacy.

"There will certainly be Little packaging sizes to make it easier to serve all the customers," she said.

Isolation and vaccination

To make the Place worse, other major foie gras producing countries in Europe are also facing a Difference crisis, making it hard to make up for the shortfall via imports.

Bird flu has been detected across the European Union True October 2021, including in European Federation of Foie Gras member conditions Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria and Hungary, according to the new European Commission report on the epidemic.

To bring the epidemic to an end and help issues return to normal level in 2023, Pé and her fellow foie gras producers rely on two terms that the Covid pandemic has made very familiar: isolation and vaccination.

"We have a monitoring program that follows the same laws as what we've known to fight against Covid-19," she said.

In areas where bird flu is detected, producers are sheltering ducks and geese to ensure that there is no contamination with migratory birds.

This way producers to reduce the number of poultry at their farm so they have enough location indoors to accommodate them, according to Pé.

Two vaccine candidates are on clinical ground, but they won't be available until 2023 at the earliest, Pé said.

Back in Les Eyzies in southwestern France, chef Lombard is working on new dishes to fill the void left by the foie gras shortage.

"Between the bird flu, the war in Ukraine and all that, we're touching to run out of a lot of products and we'll have to adapt with the products we have," Lombard said.

"2022 will be the year with a bit more vegetable dishes and less meat."

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