Dermatosis: behind the killed cows, “the work of several lives”

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Since Monday, when the first case was reported at the Rumilly farm in Haute-Savoie, a blockade has been in place to prevent veterinarians from arriving and the herd from being slaughtered. But faced with pressure and new cases identified on Thursday, the owners have resigned themselves.

In Entrelacs (Savoie), July 10. (Jeff Pachoud /AFP)

by Sascha Garcia , special correspondent in Rumilly (Haute-Savoie)

Last night, a calf was born. The small, light-brown bovine is barely standing on its feet and grazing peacefully beside its white-spotted mother under a sunny sky. Normally, the ten or so farmers who have been camping for five days at the Mésange bleue farm, on the heights of Rumilly (Haute-Savoie), would have rejoiced at the event. But with the lumpy skin disease (LSD) epidemic hitting the region, the news is further demoralizing the budding activists. Fanny Métrat, a sheep farmer from Ardèche and spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne (Farmers' Confederation), looks at it from afar: "He's going to die, like his mother. The symbol of a life destroyed for nothing."

If the land of the farm owners, Laurence Lacrouts-Cazenave and André Roupioz – who did not wish to comment – has been occupied for five days, it is because of the DNC. This extremely viral disease in cows was detected for the first time on French soil on June 29 and affects 27 outbreaks on 17 different farms, all in Savoie and Haute-S