Agriculture. Lumpy skin disease: 100,000 cattle vaccinated and a thousand slaughtered in one month

A third of the 310,000 cattle affected have been vaccinated against lumpy skin disease, a viral disease that has led to the slaughter of a thousand cattle in Savoie and Haute-Savoie over the past month, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday.

The first case was detected on June 29 in Savoie, before this disease, which is not transmissible to humans, spread rapidly. To date, 51 outbreaks have been identified on 31 farms in the two departments. Of these, 49 have already been "depopulated," and culling in the last two is underway, the ministry said at a press briefing, estimating the number of animals culled at around 1,000.

Animals in priority buildings

To stop the spread of lumpy skin disease (LSD), transmitted by biting insects, the government launched a major vaccination campaign on July 18, targeting 310,000 cattle in the two Savoie departments and the neighboring departments of Ain and Isère.

A third of the cattle concerned have been vaccinated in just under two weeks, but the ministry clarified that no "linear vaccination rate" projection could be made since animals in buildings, and therefore easily accessible, are vaccinated as a priority, and that it will then be necessary to tackle the summer pasture areas, which are less easy to access in these mountainous regions. "The rate will in principle be slower," added the ministry, welcoming the mobilization of veterinarians and students who came to lend them a hand.

According to Christian Convers, secretary general of the Rural Coordination and a breeder in Savoie, the number of animals slaughtered is closer to 2,000. The Peasant Confederation is also counting on more than 1,500 cows being slaughtered "at the end of last week," according to its spokesperson Fanny Métrat.

The systematic slaughter of animals has sparked strong feelings among farmers. It led to the blockade of several farms at the start of the epidemic to prevent euthanasia. The Peasant Confederation and the Rural Coordination called for a selective culling strategy, which the ministry ruled out again on Thursday.

With the heat favoring flies and horseflies, "we are in a phase of disease growth [...] the objective is to cut the epizootic peak," explains the ministry. "If we only carry out partial culling, we maintain insidious reservoirs of the disease (animals that carry the disease but do not develop the disease), this is very widely documented and that is why [...] scientists were unanimous on this strategy," it added. The ministry also rules out a strategy based on blood tests, arguing that the virus is thus not systematically detected.

Support devices

Acknowledging the harshness of the system, the ministry reiterated the importance of "strengthening" support measures on the psychosocial and financial levels. Compensation based on the "objective" value of the animals (i.e., taking into account the category and its production) must be calculated, but an advance will be paid to breeders "by the end of this week."

The usual three-month aid, which compensates for temporary production losses (income from milk, cheese, etc.) while farmers wait to buy back animals, has been extended for an indefinite period, which will depend on restrictions related to the epizootic. Indeed, restrictions on the movement of animals in affected areas may prevent farmers from buying back animals immediately after the period of lack of health.