Any link between the operation of the Nozay wind farm (Loire-Atlantique) and the troubles observed in two neighboring cattle farms is "highly improbable", estimates the health security agency Anses in an opinion published on Thursday.
Seized by the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Agriculture in 2019 to issue a scientific opinion on the mysterious mortality of cows from two farms, ANSES "considers as highly improbable, or even excluded" the responsibility of wind turbines.
Since the construction in 2012 of the "Quatre Seigneurs" park, three breeders from two farms have reported increased mortality of their cattle as well as behavioral disorders and a drop in their milk production, which they attribute to the installation of wind turbines at 700 and 1.500 meters from their farms.
"The troubles of which breeders are complaining are real", recognizes Matthieu Schuler, deputy director general of the "science for expertise" pole of ANSES.
These are not, however, attributable to the "physical agents" generated by wind turbines, namely sound waves, vibrations at ground level and electromagnetic fields, concludes ANSES.
Regarding the decrease in the quantity and quality of milk, reproductive disorders and mortality, the report considers that "the chronology of the disorders is incompatible with the periods of construction and commissioning of the wind farm".
For other disorders, "the levels of exposure to most physical agents are low and do not differ from those usually encountered in a farm," adds the study.
"We also questioned all of our counterpart agencies across Europe. Today, no equivalent disorder has been reported (...) in about twenty European countries", specifies Matthieu Schuler.
According to ANSES, the disorders reported by the breeders could have "other unstudied causes", in particular "an unusual level of exposure to parasitic currents in the buildings of the two farms". A parasitic current, to which cattle are particularly sensitive, is a low voltage current whose circulation is neither desired nor controlled.
In 2019, experts in the veterinary, electrical, electromagnetic and geobiological fields dispatched to Nozay had established no "direct link" between the disorders reported by farmers and wind turbines.
Several legal actions have, however, been brought by the breeders concerned.
At the end of November, the Nantes court ordered an expert appraisal of the site's electrical cables, which must be returned by July 31, 2022 at the latest.
