Eurostar has reassured passengers that “preventative measures” to prevent bedbugs travelling on the cross-Channel trains.
It comes amid fears that the alleged infestation could spread to the UK after a national panic broke out in France.
A spokesman said: “The presence of insects, such as bedbugs, on our trains is extremely rare”.
Senior officials from the health, economy and transport ministries are meeting on Friday at the prime minister’s office to co-ordinate a plan of action against the insects.
They are expected to speed up proposals for a national observatory on bedbugs.
The company is the latest transport operator to respond to alarm generated by claims on social media and amplified by news outlets and the opposition to President Macron, of a plague of bugs on the Paris Metro, railway trains, cinema seats, hotels and holiday rentals.
Clément Beaune, the transport minister, confirmed that 47 inspections on the railways found no bed bugs.
The government also denied that Paris is suffering from any infestation greater than the rising numbers reported in recent years in world capitals including London and New York.
Entomologists and health experts have warned that although there has been an undoubted surge in the bedbug population – and not just in France – many recent sightings are false, and there is a risk of unwarranted hysteria.
Transport Minister Clément Beaune said on Wednesday: “I wouldn’t like to see a kind of French-bashing take hold… as it does sometimes in Anglo-Saxon countries.
“The problem needs to be taken very seriously. No denial. And no hysteria.”
In the latest verified case, teachers at the Elisa-Lemonnier lycée school in the 12th district of Paris refused to work on Friday after several classrooms, offices and changing areas were found to have bedbugs.
