France boosts cattle vaccination against lumpy skin disease as farmers protest against culls

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Mathieu Rosemain and Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) – France will vaccinate 1 million head of cattle in coming weeks against lumpy skin disease, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said on Saturday, as farmers blocked highways and dumped manure near public buildings to protest against culls of herds.

Several outbreaks of the highly contagious disease prompted authorities to order large-scale culls, sparking demonstrations by farmers who consider the measure excessive.

A new outbreak was detected in the Haute-Garonne department, bordering Spain, Genevard confirmed on Saturday.

Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production. While not harmful to humans, it often results in trade restrictions and severe economic losses.

“We will vaccinate nearly one million animals in the coming weeks and protect farmers. I want to reiterate that the state will stand by affected farmers, their losses will be compensated as well as their operating losses,” Genevard told local radio network ICI.

France says that total culling of infected herds, alongside vaccination and movement restrictions, is necessary to contain the disease and allow cattle exports. If the disease continues to spread in livestock farms, it could kill “at the very least, 1.5 million cattle”, Genevard told Le Parisien daily in a previous interview.

Farmers stepped up protests on Saturday, blocking several toll entrances and exits on the A64 motorway in the southwestern departement Hautes-Pyrenees, local authorities said.

Protesters have also dumped manure near government buildings in Tarbes, the department’s administrative capital, disrupting the work of officials implementing the vaccination campaign, they said. 

The government, backed by the main FNSEA farming union, maintains that total culling of infected herds is necessary to prevent the disease from spreading and triggering export bans that would devastate the sector.

But the Coordination Rurale, a rival union, opposes the systematic culling approach, calling instead for targeted measures and quarantine protocols.

“There is no question of culling animals in the Pyrenees that are not sick and are healthy, simply because they belong to a herd from which a supposedly sick animal came,” said Leon Thierry, co-president of CR in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques.

Genevard said vaccination would be mandatory, and complete culling remains necessary in some cases because the disease can be asymptomatic and undetectable.

France detected 110 outbreaks across nine departments and culled about 3,000 animals, according to the Agriculture Ministry. It has paid nearly six million euros to farmers since the first outbreak on June 29.

(Reporting by Mathieu RosemainEditing by Peter Graff)