There are now 9 outbreaks of nodular dermatitis on farms in the Alt Empordà region.

BarcelonaFour more farms in the Empordà region have registered cases of cattle infected with the lumpy skin disease (LSD) virus, bringing the number of farms affected by the virus back to a new high in Catalonia, according to the Regional Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, Òscar Ordeig, on Wednesday. All cases of the disease have been detected on nearby farms—located in the municipalities of Vilabertran, Peralada, and Pedret i Marzà, in the Alt Empordà region—and last week, the Catalan government began vaccinating all animals on farms within a 20-kilometer radius of the original outbreak, which began in early October.

For now, the Department of Agriculture began administering the vaccine with a first package of 15,000 doses last week, after the first cases were detected in Catalonia. This Wednesday, the government will receive a second shipment of 82,500 vaccines requested from the European Vaccine Bank. Ordeig stated in an interview with 3CatInfo that the authorities' goal is to immunize the majority of the livestock within the vaccination range before the end of this week.

Despite starting with the farms closest to the original outbreaks of the virus, the Catalan government's vaccination plan calls for administering the vaccine to around 90,000 cattle spread across some 700 farms within a 50-kilometer radius of the affected farms. Due to the proximity of the Alt Empordà region to the Spanish-French border, the French authorities have also launched a vaccination plan for all farms spread across some seventy municipalities in Northern Catalonia.

France and Italy are the two countries that have already suffered cases of NCD this year, a disease that only affects cows, bulls, calves, and oxen, and has no impact on the health of either humans or other animal species. The fact that the DNC virus is highly contagious and is transmitted primarily by insects (mainly mosquitoes, flies, and ticks) forces governments to act as quickly as possible to vaccinate animals and, at the same time, to cull all livestock on farms where cases are detected, even if they are few.

In light of this, the executive council of the Generalitat approved this Tuesday a decree law with urgent measures for the entire primary sector This includes, among other measures, improvements in the payment and processing of compensation to farmers who have had to euthanize all the animals on their farms.

Safe vaccines

Regarding vaccination, last week the Government had to postpone the start of the campaign by one day because it had not yet received the first 15,000 doses from France. "I wish we had received the vaccines on the first day," said Ordeig, who noted that the Government has "acted as quickly as possible" to immunize livestock on farms near the DNC outbreaks. The Minister also assured that the vaccine doses received are in good condition and have not been administered earlier because the European Commission does not allow preemptive vaccination of animals.