It appeared in France in June and has already affected 75 French farms: contagious bovine lumpy skin disease (LCD) is, as its name suggests, a very contagious disease in cattle, and has been at the heart of the news for several days.
This disease, historically present in Africa, was detected for the first time in Savoie on June 29, a few days after its appearance in Sardinia. It only affects cattle and causes fever, a drop in lactation, enlarged lymph nodes and nodules on the skin and mucous membranes of animals, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. DNC is not transmitted to humans.
To eradicate DNC, the State has set up restricted zones around the outbreak which impose restrictions on the movement of cattle and their compulsory vaccination up to 50 kilometers around. For household animals, slaughter is obligatory. It is against this measure that the agricultural world is protesting, opposing the slaughter of entire herds for an animal affected by the disease. While angry farmers once again blocked several roads in the South-West during the night, where the situation is considered “worrying” by the Ministry of Agriculture, the government continues to defend its policy, while announcing the upcoming vaccination of a million additional cattle.
The government strategy divides agricultural unions. The Peasant Confederation and the Rural Coordination are calling for widespread preventive vaccination, while the FNSEA supports the protocol. The country’s leading agricultural force, the federation fears that large-scale vaccination will deprive France of its status as a “free” country according to international standards and therefore of its capacity to export live cattle for many months.
The National Council of the Order of Veterinarians in turn supports the government’s combat strategy, denouncing on several occasions the “pressure exerted on the professionals responsible for slaughtering contaminated herds”. For Matthieu Mourou, vice-president of the national council of the order of veterinarians, these radical measures are “dramatic” for breeders but make it possible to protect the entire French herd.
L’Express: Is contagious lumpy skin disease of cattle (CLD) a serious disease?
Matthieu Mourou : Its mortality rate is estimated at around 10%, but it can rise up to 40% depending on the farms. In reality, we must have a broader vision than mortality: it is a very contagious disease. It is mainly transmitted by an insect vector, such as the horsefly, which bites the animal and transmits the disease to it. Furthermore, since it is a skin disease, it can also contaminate the environment, such as certain objects in contact with the animal’s skin.
Breeders are contesting the systematic culling of contaminated livestock. Why is this measure in place?
European regulations, through the “Animal Health Law”, classify DNC in category A, that is to say a disease “normally absent from the European Union”. This means that if it is detected, it must be subject to immediate eradication. This is what happened in Greece and the Balkans in 2015, when outbreaks were detected for the first time in Europe. Depopulation and slaughter of contaminated livestock had made it possible to eradicate the disease.
The final objective is to protect the French cattle herd. We need a collective approach: when we detect an outbreak, we must eliminate the source as quickly as possible. This involves depopulation of cattle, disinfestation and disinfection of the area, the establishment of vaccination zones around infected outbreaks and, above all, strict measures regarding the movement of animals. Last summer, the state set up restricted zones around infected farms. It is essential to respect them, because insect vectors cannot fly beyond short distances. Any contagion at a long distance from a home would therefore be a priori linked to the movement of cattle, even if we still have no certainty on this.
Why not only slaughter infected animals?
Up to half of the animals on the same farm can carry the virus without being sick, so they are asymptomatic. And that’s without counting those that are in the incubation phase. If a case is detected on a farm, generally, others are also detected in the following days. This is what happened in Savoie this summer, when the first cases were detected in France: in a few days, we went from a suspicion of a few cases to the confirmed contamination of several cattle. The contagion spreads extremely quickly and circulates from farm to farm over several kilometers, the least within the range of insect vectors. Slaughter consists of avoiding it until the vaccine takes effect, which can take several weeks.
It is extremely painful for a breeder to see all his animals euthanized. It’s dramatic. But we have a collective interest in protecting others.
What is the risk of large-scale contagion of the French herd?
The primary risk is for animals. A mortality rate of around 10% proves that the disease is still serious and that it poses a significant risk to the French herd, made up of 17 million cattle.
Then, the risk is economic. France is currently recognized as “free” from the disease according to international standards. This status allows it to protect its economic partners from potential contamination of their herds. If it can no longer provide this guarantee, this will have consequences on its commercial exchanges. Our neighbors could no longer accept live animals coming from France but also their meat, their milk and their cheese.
