The bluetongue (BT) epidemic affecting France has so far caused the loss of 10% of its sheep population, estimated Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, on Thursday 12 September. Given the scale of the losses, the leading agricultural union is demanding accelerated access to vaccines and compensation.
“We have already lost 10% of the French sheep flock – that is to say ewes – as I speak, it is enormous. And when you don’t have the ewes, you don’t have the lambs.”launched on BFM-TV the head of the first agricultural union.
The adult sheep population in France numbered 5 million heads in some 66,000 farms, according to a study by Interbev, the interprofessional association for livestock and meat, published in 2023. “It’s a disaster and it’s out of control”he lamented.
According to him, “What is blocking us today is anticipation, it is the capacity to quickly collect vaccines”whether for the “Bluetongue (BTV) serotype 3 in northern France, serotype 8 with a variant, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), which affects cattle, the return of avian flu”also present in the territory.
Rapid propagation
It will also be necessary, according to Mr. Rousseau, “compensate quickly” breeders who have lost their herds. Since its first detection in early August in northern France, FCO 3, a viral disease transmitted by a midge, has been spreading rapidly and 712 outbreaks have been recorded, according to the latest report on September 5.
FCO 8 has also seen a resurgence in activity in recent weeks in the south of the country. A vaccine, different from that against FCO 3, exists and was supported by the State from 2008 to 2018, but is no longer supported for this epizootic, now considered endemic in France.
On August 30, the government announced the purchase of 5.3 million additional doses against bluetongue 3, in addition to the 6.4 million doses already ordered. The resigning Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, had also announced the order of two million doses of a vaccine that had just been approved against epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a distinct epizootic that particularly affects cattle and has been identified in 518 farms, according to a recent report. These two million doses of EHD vaccine will be provided free of charge until December 31, according to a decree published Thursday in Official Journal.