The Secretary of State for Agriculture, João Moura, called this Wednesday on farmers with bluetongue on their farms to report it to the authorities, recognizing that some do not do so for fear of the consequences.
“We realized that a group of producers in difficulties who are going through terrible situation On their farms they were afraid of being kidnapped, but we want to reassure them,” the head of the Évora government told the Lusa agency. Noting that the guardianship does not persecute anyone who has the disease on their farms, the government official said that it is necessary to declare its existence know “the true state of the matter” so that the authorities can “act accordingly”.
Bluetongue disease has already affected at least 279 cattle and sheep farms, mainly in Évora and Beja, and has caused the death of 1,775 animals, according to data provided to Lusa by the Ministry of Agriculture.
On Monday, the president of ACOS – Southern Farmers, Rui Garrido, stated that more than 2,000 corpses are being collected per day, through the Dead Animal Corpse Collection System on Farms, compared to 400 in normal situations.
João Moura spoke after participating in an information session on bluetongue, during the “Merino Open Day”, organized by the National Association of Merino Sheep Breeders (ANCORME), in Évora. The new serotype 3 of the disease, which mainly affects sheep, was detected for the first time in mid-September in the district of Évora and has since spread throughout the Alentejo, causing the death of thousands of animals.
According to the Government, the subsidy to Animal Health Producer Organizations (OPSA) for this year will be increased by one million euros to offset the costs of vaccines against bluetongue. “We have an incentive of one million euros ready to compensate the OPSA, and directly the producers, who invested in vaccination,” stated the Secretary of State.
The governor highlighted that more 100,000 doses of vaccine against the new bluetongue serotype 3, known in Portugal as bluetongue disease, refusing to reveal further details about the support.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, he stated, is already preparing “a large pest control campaign in Portugal”, which should be underway next year with a cost “of the order of 5.6 million euros”. The campaign will include “placing traps in different parts of the national territory to know how the insects move, the sources, where the threats are so that we are properly prepared,” he highlighted.
The Secretary of State for Agriculture admitted that the Portuguese Government may, if necessary, together with the European Union and other countries, request that the vaccine be marketed in order to be included in the National Vaccination Plan.
Also speaking to Lusa, Miguel Madeira, vice president of ACOS, from Beja, considered that the measures explained by the Secretary of State in the session “seem important, although he has not fully applied them.” “It was also important to leave a future perspective here to start the 2025 campaign because the virus will now slow down during the winter, but will reactivate next spring,” he highlighted.
Diogo Vasconcelos, president of the Association of Young Farmers of the South (AJASUL), of Évora, maintained that the sector continues, even so, “without knowing how it will be helped,” since few explanations were given about the support. “At least, the Secretary of State seemed to show his face“, he noted, adding that producers need “vaccines in quantity and available for free and, eventually, some type of support for losses.”
Source: Observadora
