Following the confirmation of three outbreaks of bluetongue (BT) of the new serotype 3 in northern France, the Ministry of Agriculture indicated on Friday 9 August 2024 that the vaccination campaign would begin on Monday, for which it “provides 6.4 million doses of vaccines free of charge.”
An order published this Sunday, August 11, in Official Journal confirms that “the visit of suspect animals and the establishment aimed at diagnosing bluetongue, the acts necessary for the treatment of clinical suspicion, the census of animals present on the establishment, the prescription of the sanitary measures to be respected, the visit report and the corresponding certificates” will be taken care of by the State.
“The State covers the cost of analyses carried out in an approved laboratory for samples”adds the text.
Read also: Bluetongue: five questions about this disease that worries farmers
Blue tongue disease
Bluetongue, which is fatal to sheep, is also known as “blue tongue disease”. It manifests itself by fever, respiratory problems, a hanging tongue or even the loss of pregnant young. It also affects cattle, but with a much lower mortality rate, or sometimes deer.
It passes from an infected ruminant to an uninfected animal via Culicoides midges. Its detection does not result in the euthanasia of animals, unlike avian flu.
FCO, which is not transmissible to humans, has also been present for years in France through serotypes 4 and 8 (in Corsica and mainland France); vaccines already existed for these serotypes, but thousands of unvaccinated sheep have died in recent weeks in the South.
French herds, on the other hand, have not developed any resistance to serotype 3, which they had never encountered.
Leaving the Netherlands in September 2023
This epizootic – or animal epidemic – transmitted by biting insects, began in the Netherlands in September 2023. The virus then spread to Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom within a few weeks.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, the number of outbreaks has increased sharply in recent days, reaching 308 in Belgium according to the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain on Thursday. The first confirmed case in France was confirmed on Monday in Marpent (North) a few kilometers from Belgium.
