Faced with the surge in animal diseases, the State will make more vaccines available to breeders

To stem the outbreak of diseases affecting sheep, ewes and cattle in France, the State will order several million additional vaccines and make them available free of charge to farmers, the resigning Minister of Agriculture announced on Friday, August 30. “Even in a particular political context, we are at work”assured Marc Fesneau during a trip to Flagy, in Saône-et-Loire, emphasizing the “solidarity” from the government for a sector “particularly affected” This year.

The government will thus pay 14 million euros for 5.3 million additional doses, in addition to the 6.4 million doses already ordered. The vaccine “lessens the effects” of the disease, but “does not prevent new infections”recalled the minister, inviting breeders to adopt “barrier gestures”, such as pest control or PCR testing of their animals.

The number of outbreaks of bluetongue serotype 3 has practically doubled in one week, reaching 342 confirmed outbreaks as of August 29, according to a new report on this disease known as “blue tongue”. Since its first detection in early August in northern France, this viral disease transmitted by a midge has been spreading rapidly and cases have recently been detected in Saône-et-Loire and Orne. “We are in a race against time”, SO “we are expanding the area” in which vaccines are provided free of charge to breeders, the minister said. This now concerns “70% of departments” and extends to the Rhône-Alpes region in the south and the Pays-de-la-Loire region in the west, he said.