the Department requests urgent aid for breeders

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While the storm rumbles in the French countrysidethe Department of Drome calls on the State for urgent, substantial and appropriate aid for livestock farms affected by the FCO3 and 8 and MHE epidemics. This wish was adopted unanimously, majority therefore as opposition, by the elected representatives of the Department, during a session, Monday November 18.

Drôme farms are currently heavily affected by serotype 8 of bluetongue, decimating the herds. And a first case of serotype 3 was detected in a cattle from a commune in the neighboring department of Ardèche, at the end of October. The arrival of serotype 3 in Drôme is now feared by breeders…

Herds decimated

“Since August 2024, the ruminant herds of the Drôme department have been subject to the development of an epidemic of bluetongue fever caused by a new variant of serotype 8, said the president of the Department, Marie-Pierre Mouton. This new variant turns out to be exceptionally harmful for sheep and also affects cattle et goats. »

The questions that breeders and their veterinarians are asking today about the effectiveness of control and prevention methods, and about their ability to rebuild their herds “show the severe lack of information in the field, capitalizing on previous episodes and disseminating knowledge by means coordinated on a national scale”, scathes the Department.

Confusion, anxiety and astonishment among breeders

In addition, for the Drôme community, “the management measures for other epidemics of emerging diseases of FCO serotype 3 and epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EMD) underway in the territory and the very important national communication on these no less deleterious diseases, have added to the confusion, anxiety et the astonishment of our Drôme breeders whose situation is very worrying today.”

Breeders must bear particularly high levels of expenses on their own to cover veterinary costs and forgo income linked to the mortality of their animals. This already critical situation will be aggravated, tomorrow, by the losses linked to the sterility of breeding stock and the costs of reconstituting herds as well as by the possible reduction in aid from the common agricultural policy (CAP).

An already very fragile situation…

This epidemic arrives in an already very tense context and aggravates sometimes very fragile individual situations: “many breeders being confronted to exhaustion et un stress permanent», protests the Department.

Elected officials note that “the risks of abandonment of certain farms are particularly high… not to mention the context of increasingly pressing lupine predationputting constant pressure on the shoulders of breeders, with no solution to address this problem that they have been warning about for a long time.”

The effectiveness of vaccines in question

Furthermore, according to the departmental council, “the danger of loss of CAP aid for 2025 and 2026, uncertainty over the availability of vaccines and their effectiveness the threat of new diseases already on the doorstep of the department and the cruel lack of resources and cash flow prevent breeders from planning to emerge from the crisis in the short term…”

“But with what means could they do so,” asked the elected officials. According to INSEE, in 2020, between 28 and 30% of active agricultural households in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpesfor the sheep, goat and cattle sectors live below the poverty line. According to the latest regional agricultural statistics, the disposable income per sheep or goat farm is less than €20,000 per year! »

In this exceptional situation, beyond long-term support for these animal sectors, the Department mobilized from the start of the crisis […].

The Drôme Department joins forces with the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region to welcome the government's intervention to mobilize an envelope of 75 million euros in response to this crisis: “We welcome the approach of the Minister of Agriculture which announced on November 4 the upcoming organization of the Animal Health Conference intended to better prevent and anticipate health crises of this type. »

The Department's recommendations to the State

“But certain questions remain unanswered,” tempers the assembly immediately. Consequently, the departmental elected officials of Drôme address the following wish to the State, recommending that it:

• define a coherent national vaccination strategy, for all 2 serotypes 3 and 8 and for MHE, free for all farms and making it possible to deal with current epidemics and renewed in advance for 2025 and 2026;
• work to ensure that FCO 3 and 8 and MHE vaccines are available in sufficient quantities;
• conduct a large-scale study to capitalize on current epidemics, in particular on the effectiveness of vaccines and the means of rebuilding herds, as well as on the coordination of services and communication with breeders;
• guarantee, from now on, compensation for direct and indirect damage to breeders affected by all serotypes, by the State and the FNMSE, to enable them to anticipate new expenses to rebuild their production potential;
• put in place derogatory measures for the 2025 and 2026 CAP aid thresholds, and guarantee the maintenance of 2024 aid levels;
• put in place rapid charge exemption measures to reduce cash flow;
• bring reflection to the European level to define a vaccination strategy for Member States to reduce the circulation of variants and protect against the arrival and spread of new variants;
• organize, on the national territory, rapid, accessible and simple communication both on the availability of aid and on the reality of the risks linked to these diseases.

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