Bluetongue epidemic: almost a hundred farms affected in Pyrénées-Orientales

2024-08-03 18:48:31

It is now two months since bluetongue killed the herd in the Pyrénées-Orientales. By early August, nearly a hundred farms were affected, with significant deaths among sheep. “Since the beginning of the crisis, I have lost 180 sheep from a flock of 600,” lamented Antoine Chrysostome, coach in Corsavy (Pyrénées-Orientales) and president of the sheep association of the department.

It has now been established that it is serotype 8, in its Aveyron variant, which is widespread in livestock, but also in wild animals. Paul Delbosc, director of the health protection group of Pyrénées-Orientales said “There are many things that show the specific execution of the virus, which caused much less damage in Aveyron last August and September. “The secret is that we have issues in the goat herd, which did not happen during the last episode. The second is death in sheep: it is 30% of the flocks in total, it is very important. And mortality, the number of dead animals compared to the number of sick animals, is also very high. »

65 farm sheep

What has also surprised the breeding world is the height of the culicoid midge that carries the disease apparently entering this year. “Normally, it is not alive above 1,400 or 1,500 m, but there we have herds that have been contaminated in the summer pastures, well above,” Thomas Sundermann, head of health, animal protection and environment of the directors of the people of the department.

In total, 5 goat farms, 65 sheep farms and 26 cattle farms declared an outbreak. But other species of ruminants, camelids, llamas … Only two areas of the department have some influence at this time, Plain Roussillon and the Albères massif. But the disease has already spread into neighboring areas, in Ariège and Aude and as far as Haute-Garonne. And we also discovered this week the first case of epizootic anemia in Pyrénées-Orientales, a disease that spreads through the same medium, also hosts horse fever and West Nile virus.

“An unprecedented dimension”

What will happen now? Vaccination campaigns, which are at the discretion of breeders and their doctors, should begin to produce their effects. Animals get vaccinated after 40 days. “In theory, we vaccinate when the disease is not present, if there is a risk, but this happens so quickly that we have to do it quickly,” said Paul Delbosc. Thomas Sundermann added: “We have never seen a crisis this big before, above all, we cannot predict it.

No one knows how the midge got to Vallespir, where the epizootic came out. And no one knows what kind of relief measures will be put in place for the affected breeders. “We don’t have many sheep in this department, 13,000, this risks doing great harm to our company,” the president of the sheep association regretted. It will take several years to expect a return to normal.