Explosion of bluetongue cases in French farms, with 2,000 outbreaks recorded in one month

In eastern France, in the Savoie region, new outbreaks of lumpy skin disease continue to multiply daily, leaving farmers helpless . Because at the slightest detection, the total slaughter of the herd is decreed . At the other end of France, another epizootic is raging. The spread of bluetongue (BT), potentially fatal in ruminants, has been exponential in recent weeks in French livestock farms. More than 2,000 outbreaks of this pathology – of which two serotypes are currently circulating in France, BT 3 and 8 – have been recorded in one month, particularly in the West, according to official figures released this Friday, August 1, by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Between June 1 and July 31, 1,117 cases of bluetongue 3 were recorded, mainly in Brittany, a region with a high livestock population, and to a lesser extent in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, which was particularly affected last year. This serotype, which appeared in France on August 5, 2024, caused the contamination of 712 outbreaks in one month from its onset, as the summer season favors midges that transmit this "bluetongue disease." Cases more than doubled in one week between July 24 and 31, even though the vaccine against this serotype is widely available from veterinarians, explains Michèle Boudoin, president of the National Sheep Federation, a specialized association of the FNSEA.

For FCO8, which has been endemic for several years in France, 1,060 cases were recorded between June 1 and July 31. They particularly exploded in Morbihan, which has 367 outbreaks.

As the sheep industry struggled to recover from the crisis that occurred in 2024, the ministry announced this Friday that it had ordered seven million doses of serotype 8 vaccine for this season , "enable[ing] the vaccination of all sheep farms." This announcement comes a month after the launch of the vaccination campaign. "It is crucial to protect ruminant farms now [...]. I call on all farmers to vaccinate their herds," Minister Annie Genevard, quoted in the text, added. Because in addition to fever and respiratory problems, the disease affects the fertility and milk production of both sheep and cattle in the longer term.

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"The ministry did the job, we have vaccines, even if they arrived a little late, they are free for the bluetongue, we obtained 15 million additional European aid thanks to the remainder of organic products for the sheep sector, which suffered greatly last year," assures Michèle Boudoin, distraught at the farmers who do not vaccinate. Brittany was less affected last year, but the breeder affirms that the ministry had anticipated by sending doses to areas where herd immunity had perhaps been less able to develop. "These are small farms in the region that risk being decimated and some farmers do not seem to have received the message," she adds.

The Confédération paysanne, the third-largest agricultural union, denounced in a press release on Wednesday "an extremely late delivery of vaccines" and asked the State "at a minimum, to renew the 2024 compensation scheme for all livestock (cattle, sheep, goats) affected by at least one serotype of bluetongue or by epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD)." It also calls for compensation for indirect losses and veterinary costs.