The bluetongue epidemic (BTV) affecting France has now caused the loss of 10% of the sheep flock, estimated Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, on Thursday 12 September. Faced with the scale of the losses, the main agricultural union is calling for accelerated access to vaccines and compensation.
“At the time I speak to you, we have already lost 10% of the French sheep flock, that is, sheep, which is huge. And when you don’t have sheep, you don’t have lambs.”the head of the first agricultural union launched on BFM-TV.
The adult sheep flock in France amounts to 5 million heads on 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 not under control”he lamented.
According to him, “What is blocking today is anticipation, it is the ability to quickly collect vaccines”whether for “Bluetongue fever (BF) serotype 3 in northern France, serotype 8 with a variant, epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EMD), affecting livestock, the return of avian influenza”also present in the region.
Rapid spread
It will also be necessary, according to Rousseau, “compensate quickly” breeders who have lost their flocks. Since its first detection in early August in northern France, FCO 3, a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes, has spread rapidly and 712 outbreaks have been recorded, according to the latest report dated 5 September.
FCO 8 has also seen renewed activity in recent weeks in the south of the country. There is a different vaccine from that of FCO 3, which was covered by the State from 2008 to 2018, but it is no longer covered for this epizootic, now considered endemic in France.
On August 30, the government announced the purchase of 5.3 million additional doses against FCO 3, in addition to the 6.4 million doses already ordered. The outgoing Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, had announced at the same time the order of two million doses of a recently approved vaccine against epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EMD), a specific epizootic that particularly affects cattle and which has been identified on 518 farms. according to a latest report. These two million doses of MHE vaccines will be distributed free of charge until December 31, according to a decree published Thursday in Official Journal.
