The impact of the outbreak of Bluetongue disease on the sheep farming sector “is already devastating, with losses currently amounting to around 6 million euros”, the Portuguese Farmers' Confederation (CAP) reported today.
"From the beginning of September to today, there have been 40 more deaths among the sheep population, compared to the same period last year. Given such a brutal excess of mortality, seen from north to south of the country, the sector urgently needs help to overcome the serious economic and financial situation generated by this epidemic, which could worsen in the coming weeks", adds CAP, in a statement.
On the other hand, he denounces, the System for the Collection of Corpses of Animals Dead on the Farm (SIRCA), coordinated by the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture, «has not had the capacity to process the extremely high number of animals dead following the bluetongue epidemic that has now affected all districts of mainland Portugal».
The system “is not designed for a catastrophic situation like the current one”, stresses CAP.
Many of the animals killed by this outbreak of Bluetongue, a disease transmitted by mosquito bites with a high mortality rate in sheep, but which is not transmitted to humans, nor is it transmitted between animals, «will have to be buried on their owners' land due to SIRCA's operational incapacity».
“This is an exceptional situation, and all producer associations are aware of the precautions they will have to take in terms of biosecurity when burying animals.”
Since only around ten consecutive days with temperatures below 10/11 degrees Celsius will be able to naturally halt the widespread progression of the disease (last year's outbreak, caused by another serotype for which there was vaccination, which killed a much smaller number of animals, only slowed down in February this year, when the weather conditions suitable for the progression of the mosquito were achieved), CAP considers that "it is essential that the Government immediately decrees mandatory vaccination against serotype 3 of Bluetongue disease for sheep and cattle, to this end including it in the Animal Health Programme (PSA) and making it available free of charge to producers".
In addition to this “urgent measure”, the Portuguese State must also “coordinate and implement strategic pest control actions in order to eliminate the greatest possible number of mosquitoes that transmit this virus”.
Until the aforementioned weather conditions occur, and until vaccines are administered to healthy animals, “it is expected that the situation could worsen substantially”, adds CAP.
The mortality and abortion rates associated with this serotype are very high, placing the sector in a “worrying health situation and threatening the sustainability of livestock farms”.
For all these reasons, the Farmers' Confederation stresses that it is "of the utmost urgency that the supervisory authority recognises the enormous gravity of the situation and intervenes quickly with financial aid to farmers and the inclusion of the vaccine against Bluetongue serotype 3 for sheep and cattle in the PSA".
“The minimum livestock density must also be reviewed to validate the eco-regime measures and agro-environmental measures to ensure the continuity of farms and their economic sustainability,” says CAP.
Likewise, due to the high abortion rate, “it is also imperative to establish an exception regime regarding compliance with the calving interval, provided for in some of the support measures of the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC). This measure aims to prevent producers from being further harmed, making it impossible for them to apply for the aforementioned support”.
Thus, CAP ends its statement by appealing to farmers to declare cases of disease, “so that the real dimension of the outbreak can be verified statistically, so that existing support mechanisms can be properly activated”.
The Confederation ends by stressing the "exemption from health risks with regard to the consumption of meat, milk and their derivatives that may come from animals infected with bluetongue. The consumption of sheep's meat, milk and cheese, and lamb meat, is safe".
And he adds: “this information, in the current context, is essential so that the crisis the sector is going through is not compounded by another resulting from unjustified alarmism and a consequent drop in demand”.
Comments