30 Jul 2024
Greece Bans Movement of Goats and Sheep Due to ‘Goat Plague’
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ATHENS, July 29 (Reuters) – Greece has banned moving sheep and goats from their farms to try to contain a viral infection known as “goat plague” after new cases were detected over the weekend, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.
The virus, also known as Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), does not affect humans but is highly contagious among goats and sheep and can kill up to 70% of those infected.
About 8,000 animals have been culled and more than 200,000 tested, mainly in the central Thessaly region where authorities first detected the outbreak on July 11, Georgios Stratakos, a senior agriculture ministry official, told Reuters.
“Tightening the security measures across the country is deemed necessary for preventive reasons and is aimed at limiting the spread and eradicating the disease,” the ministry said in a statement.
PPR was first described in Ivory Coast in 1942 and has since spread across the world.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the disease results in losses of up to $2.1 billion around in the world each year.