The first cases in France of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EMD), affecting deer and cattle, were detected on farms in the Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday September 21.
The ministry specifies in its press release that three farms are affected in these two departments of the South-West and that “measures to manage this disease are put in place by the ministry’s services, in conjunction with professional organizations”.
The export of live cattle has been completely banned in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Gers, Haute-Garonne and Ariège, and partly in six neighboring departments (Gironde, Lot- et-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales).
According to the Basque Country Farmers’ Defense Union, exports are also “blocked” to Spain and Italy for fattening, but not for the immediate slaughter of cattle.
“Very low mortality”
Discovered in the United States in 1995, MHE mainly affects deer and cattle and is transmitted by biting midges. It causes fever, weight loss, mouth lesions and breathing difficulties in animals, but “generates only very low mortality”, specifies the ministry.
“We observe less than 1% mortality in cattle, but the virus can be very deadly in deer, with mortality rates of more than 90% observed in the United States”, specified to Agence France- Press Stephan Zientara, director of the animal health laboratory of the French National Health Security Agency (ANSES).
“We do not yet know how the virus will affect European deer,” he adds, while Anses reported in May that it had detected the disease for the first time in Europe in the fall of 2022, in Sardinia then in Sicily. Its arrival on the continent is, according to the health agency, a consequence of climate change, which allows the midge vectors to survive.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is not transmissible to humans, and no vaccine is yet available against the type of virus spotted in Europe.
