Bluetongue, haemorrhagic diseases and even bird flu: the spread of certain animal diseases is worrying French farmers. “For a farmer, going into his pen every morning and seeing the animals scattered around is a disaster,” lamented FNSEA president Arnaud Rousseau on Thursday morning on BFMTV-RMC. “This is not under control,” lamented the leader of the main agricultural union, referring to the lack of vaccines for farms.
“10% of the sheep flock”
According to the president of the FNSEA, “we have already lost” currently “10% of the sheep flock”. However, “when you don’t have sheep, you don’t have lambs”, he continued. “What is blocking today is anticipation, it is the ability to quickly collect vaccines”, affirmed Arnaud Rousseau. Although he welcomed the vaccine orders announced by the State, he considered that it was necessary to “move faster” and quickly apply compensation to the affected breeders.
Also called bluetongue disease, bluetongue (BTV) is a viral disease that affects domestic (sheep, cattle, goats) and wild ruminants. Farmers have had to deal with two serotypes of the virus (BTV8 and BTV4) since 2017, and a new serotype (BTV3) has begun to spread to France from neighbouring countries. In August, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a vaccination campaign that will continue until the end of the year.
In just eight days
Too late, according to breeders. “The disease was already advanced when the vaccines arrived on August 16. The disease developed in just eight days. Some of the cattle were already sick and 20% of the animals could not be vaccinated,” Yohann Sommé, president of the Federation of Ardennes sheep breeders, told BFM Business.
Source: BFM TV
