Bluetongue: France orders two million additional doses of vaccine

France has launched an order for two million additional doses of bluetongue vaccine “as part of a vaccination strategy adapted to the rapid evolution of the epizootic”announced the Ministry of Agriculture this Monday. The state had already ordered 11.7 million doses of vaccines against bluetongue serotype 3. These two million new doses will be added to this total and will allow “to ensure optimized vaccination coverage” according to the ministry.

As of October 10, the Ministry of Agriculture counted 5,374 outbreaks of bluetongue (FCO) serotype 3, considered a new epizootic, not transmissible to humans, and which is wreaking havoc in Europe. It arrived at the beginning of August in the north of France and very quickly spread from the departments of Ardennes, Meuse and Bas-Rhin to the entire northern part of the country, as far as Cher and Saône-et-Loire. . In infected animals, bluetongue manifests itself by fever, respiratory problems, cyanosis of the tongue, facial edema or even the loss of young during pregnancy and sometimes by the death of the animals.