The first national census concerning shellfish culture in France was carried out in 2002. The main purpose was to provide accurate and comprehensive information on the number and structure of the companies using an in depth review of production factors (leases, plants, equipment's, labour and qualifications), and a survey of cultural practices up to the market level. Moreover, the census aimed to quantify the bivalve sales dedicated to consumption and to measure the livestock transfers among rearing shellfish production areas at different developmental stages: spat, intermediate products and fully grown marketable products. The French oyster production reached 109 000 metric tons in 2001. The main production was observed in Poitou-Charentes region (Southwest coast of France), including the Marennes-Oleron Bay, followed by Normandy and South Brittany regions, respectively. The other rearing areas represented less than 10% of the total landings. In 2000, spat production was estimated at 4.6 billions of units, of which 84% were produced using the traditional wild spat collecting operations. In contrast, only 15% resulted from hatchery production. More than 60% of the spat production was translocated the following year outside their native areas (Charente Maritime and Arcachon bay) for further growing, mainly in Normandy and South Brittany. Similarly, movements among rearing areas were precisely reported over the rearing cycle. Those exchanges were important between the Northern and Southern parts of Brittany, Poitou-Charentes, and Normandy, while limited for the other rearing areas. After investigation on the main economical factors driving bivalve translocations, we discuss the potential consequences of those cultural practices if exotic pathogens were to be accidentally introduced. We emphasise the necessity of these types of data set to further investigate epidemiological situation when outbreaks occur, to discuss time series data on pathogen occurrence and disease status, as well as to specify zoning and associated strategy when implementing a targeted surveillance programme.