French farmers affected by bluetongue will receive 75 million euros and guaranteed loans from the government

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced on Friday a €75 million grant for French sheep farmers affected by bluetongue disease, as well as guaranteed loans. Barnier, who made his first trip dedicated to the primary sector at the Cournon d'Auvergne livestock fair near Clermont Ferrand, said that this emergency aid has been designed taking into account this new epidemic. Two serotypes of bluetongue were already present in France, but this summer a new one broke out, type 3 (BTV3), which arrived in northern Europe at the end of 2023. The first case was detected on August 5 on a farm in the Nord department, near the Belgian border, and as of October 3, the Ministry of Agriculture has recorded 4,644 outbreaks in 26 of the country's hundred departments, mainly in the north and west. In order to try to prevent the spread, a regulated zone has been established, the boundaries of which change every week, in which the movement of susceptible animals (cattle, goats and sheep) with the ...