Faced with contagious lumpy pores and skin illness, mobilization continues within the South-West, on the eve of a go to by Annie Genevard | EUROtoday

Demonstrations and blockades all through the South-West, together with the blockade of Bordeaux deliberate for Sunday, December 14, within the night: cattle breeders are growing the stress earlier than the arrival on Monday, in Occitanie, of the Minister of Agriculture, whose administration of the lumpy pores and skin illness (LSD) epidemic they’re contesting.

“There are new blockages in progress (…) it continues and it develops”declared to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Bertrand Venteau, president of the Rural Coordination, very indignant, just like the Peasant Confederation, towards the widespread slaughter of animals from affected households and to demand a big vaccination of the French herd of 16 million cattle towards this illness not transmissible to people.

On the A64, blocked since Friday night by dozens of tractors over greater than 100 kilometers within the Basque Country east of Tarbes, farmers have put in Christmas bushes as an indication of their need to final. “We left to spend the holidays here”, “we won’t break camp like that”declared to AFP Cédric Baron, farmer-cattle breeder in Montoussin (Haute-Garonne), mobilized in Carbonne, start line of a earlier agricultural protest motion in January 2024.

Farmers mobilized towards large slaughter

“We are at war. As long as the State does not renounce mass slaughter, we will be there”warns Cédric Nespoulous, beef cattle producer in Tarn, the place round fifty farmers are blocking the nationwide N88 on the entrance to the Albi ring street. In Millau, round twenty tractors dumped slurry, hay, tires and rubbish in entrance of and within the courtyard of the Aveyron sub-prefecture, in keeping with an AFP photographer.

Other farmers are mobilizing close to Montpellier or in Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), whereas awaiting new requires blockades within the night in Bordeaux and the Dordogne.

On the dams, many activists say “shocked” by the pictures of tear fuel utilized by the gendarmes in the course of the week in Ariège to disperse the breeders who had been blocking veterinarians’ entry to the farm affected by the primary case of DNC on this a part of the nation.

“When there is a sick animal, everyone agrees to cull it, but killing entire herds, when it takes years to establish genetics and build a herd, we are totally against”Christophe Guénon, a cow breeder and natural market gardener close to Bordeaux, informed AFP.

The authorities defends focused vaccination

The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, supported on this challenge by the bulk union alliance FNSEA-Jeunes Agriculteurs, defends “a protocol that worked very well”for the reason that look of the primary case of this illness in France, in June, in Savoie. She assured the newspaper on Saturday South West that there was “no active focus of DNC on French territory”.

While the president of Rural Coordination, Mr. Venteau, believes that “It is now that vaccination must be decreed, otherwise we will have a tragedy in less than a month” And “the entire south of the Loire will be contaminated”the minister responded on Sunday on Europe 1 that “the virus is not at the gates of every farm”.

On Monday, she is going to go to Occitania to “witness the beginnings of vaccination in this territory” for 1,000,000 animals, “because it is the way to fight against disease”. The authorities, nonetheless, stays very cautious in regards to the attainable generalization of vaccination. “If we vaccinated all livestock, it would place France as a risk zone and therefore it would pose an economic risk to the entire agricultural sector”pleaded Sunday Sébastien Martin, Minister Delegate in control of business, visitor of the “Grand Jury” RTL-M6-Le Figaro-Public Senate.

The technique to fight DNC ​​applied by the federal government, combining slaughter of contaminated herds and focused vaccination, is the “more efficient”argued authorities spokesperson Maud Bregeon on Sunday. “This is not a political decision (…) it is a health decision that was concerted (…) since last July with the health parliament which includes veterinarians, breeders, chambers of agriculture, trade union organizations, state services, ANSES [Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire] »underlined M^me Bregeon.

Why not vaccinate all the animals? “There is one thing that must be understood, which is that today when a region is vaccinated, when a department is vaccinated, you can no longer export because the territory is considered contaminated”responded the federal government spokesperson, highlighting the “repercussions” on the work and earnings of farmers. “There are 3,000 animals that have been slaughtered since the start of this disease and we know it, it’s a tragedy. But for all that, it is 0.02% of the French herd and that allows us to protect the others”she put it into perspective.

Carole Delga appeals to Sébastien Lecornu

The president of the Occitanie area, Carole Delga (Socialist Party), whose area is now the epicenter of the DNC epizootic and the agricultural anger that accompanies it, despatched an open letter on Sunday to the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, judging “that he [était] time for [lui] to intervene in order to guarantee, as quickly as possible, a frank and sincere dialogue with the farmers of this country”.

M^me Delga described in her letter “indignation and anger” who develop “inexorably faced with the despair of a people. They are commensurate with the shock felt by an entire profession and, beyond that, by the population, regarding government management of lumpy skin disease”she writes.

In addition to the well being administration of the present disaster, different burning points such because the Mercosur commerce agreements and the introduced discount within the finances of the frequent European agricultural coverage are fueling the anger of farmers.