Spanish farmers call for strengthening sanitary measures against bluetongue

The sheep and goat sector of the Union of Farmers and Livestock Farmers will present a series of observations focused on achieving an improvement in the management of bluetongue and greater support for the affected sectors in their preparation for the disease. The organization will present these proposals as observations to the draft Order that updates the regulations regarding bluetongue, which specifically contemplate, among others, direct aid and a reinforcement of sanitary measures. In this sense, it highlights the difficult situation in which the sheep sector finds itself, and the bovine sector to a lesser extent, in the face of the incidence and advance of the bluetongue serotypes that livestock farmers have faced until now in Spain (1, 4 and 8, which in this last campaign have been more aggressive) and the appearance of serotype 3, with a higher mortality rate in sheep and possible production losses in cattle. First of all, Unión de Uniones stresses that this disease does ...