Almost 2,000 cows slaughtered is the balance left in Spain by the outbreak of dContagious lumpy erythematosus detected for the first time on October 3. Until just three months ago, no one had heard of this disease, which has had a great impact on numerous farms that have lost all their animals. «The ranchers don’t want to talk to the press. “You can’t even tell how they are, the shock of having to sacrifice their animals,” explains Raquel Serrat, national coordinator of the Unió de Pagesos union.
And to this are added the economic losses: «There are farms that are not going to continue; In which there is a generational change it may be, but there are those who have decided to retire, because it is not worth it to start over, something that would require several years of effort again. Furthermore, we are already at the end of November and the compensation order for those affected has not yet been approved. It’s a shame, because no one deserves to retire for this, but the reality of the sector is that only 4% of farm managers are under 40 years old».
What symptoms do you have?
Lumpy dermatosis (LSD) is a virus that affects cattle and causes skin nodules, fever and drops in milk production; Dairy cows are the most affected by this pathology. It is transmitted by blood-sucking insects – flies, mosquitoes or ticks – which act as vectors.
It is not a zoonotic disease, that is, It is not transmitted to peoplebut it is classified in Europe as category A, “those that do not normally circulate in the EU and that require immediate control and eradication measures as soon as they are detected.”
This explains why the actions have been forceful and urgent. Between the detection of the first contagion, on October 3, and the last, on October 22, 17 outbreaks appeared that have been controlled by establishing restriction zones of 20 kilometers around each one, in addition to surveillance areas of 50 kilometers, especially in Alt Empordà (Girona). At the same time, a vaccination program was launched. Only in Catalonia (the region affected by the DNC), More than 152,000 cows have been vaccinated. Meanwhile, in other regions, livestock fairs were being suspended (Aragón, Navarra, Cantabria and Asturias) to prevent the spread of the disease. «They acted quickly and correctly. The vaccination has been, I believe, very successful and the disease seems to be contained. The cold has also helped, which affects all these vectors that transmit it, and has prevented the disease from advancing further. We are in a moment of calm, very vigilant, but already calm, explains Joaquín Gargallo, head of the beef sector at the Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG), as well as a rancher.
Emptying
One of the most controversial measures has been sanitary emptying: sacrificing all the animals on a farm where a case appears. It is the mandatory protocol for category A diseases. “They have a high potential for diffusion, do not respect borders and cause serious economic losses,” can be read on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA). However, both veterinarians and ranchers question the harshness of the procedure in a disease that does not infect humans and that many animals can overcome in a few weeks. «It means sacrificing all the cattle on the farm, regardless of their age and condition. The professionals suffer a severe loss and a strong emotional shock,” they insist from the Unió de Pagesos. In fact, a reconsideration of the procedure is being requested in the face of new future cases. “A few weeks ago, the sector met in Brussels to ask that “It is lowered from category A to B and that we try to tackle future problems through preventive measures such as vaccination.”details Noelia Núñez, member of the Official College of Veterinarians of Salamanca.
Tour de France
While the situation seems under control, the investigation into how the virus arrived in Spain continues. DNC was first described in Zambia in 1928, but did not enter in Europe until 2014. «In 2019 it reappeared in EU territory and this summer we found it again in Italy and France», recalls Núñez. The disease even forced the route of stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France to be modified to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies, which was affected by an outbreak. «The AP-7 is one of the busiest roads in Europe. It is a particularly risky territory for diseases to travel. In addition, we have the humid area of Aiguamolls de l’Empordà, a land of mosquitoes and flies and which is on the border with France,” they point out from Unió de Pagesos.
New diseases
The DNC joins other threats such as Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease or bluetongue that have appeared in recent years and reinforce the feeling that animals are increasingly exposed to new diseases and vectors that until now were not present in the EU. This is how Joaquín Gargallo, spokesperson for the COAG union, sees it: «There are many diseases at the gates of Europe. In recent years we have been very concerned about hemorrhagic disease and bluetongue, whose main vector is a small mosquito… But many times humans act as the main vector. In a globalized world, diseases and the vectors that transmit them are transported, and our animals are not prepared for these impacts. Realize that many animals move through different countries. Furthermore, we are witnessing an intensification of livestock farming and marketing that requires large farms and a lot of movement, and that is precisely what most threatens the health of our farms,” he says. That is why he defends local commerce as a prevention measure. Serrat from the Pagesos Union agrees: «The mobility of people is increasingly greater and the climate is changing. We have to adapt human and animal health to the new reality. What we proposed is that, when there is an outbreak, it is mandatory to stop animal movements. “I understand that within the livestock, export and import sector, this can have an economic impact, but the only way to control the expansion is by limiting movements.”
From the Unió they remember that this episode is a new blow in a sector that, “although it has been experiencing a period of relative tranquility in recent months with decent prices for meat and milk,” has been in an unflattering situation for years. Livestock farms in Europe have decreased by almost 20% in the last decade. The current bovine census represents some 74 million animals, of which Spain contributes 8.6% (6.3 million)ranking as the fifth country with the highest census, after France, Germany, Ireland and Poland. “We will now see the impact that this crisis has on the market,” recalls Serrat.
For their part, veterinarians insist on maintaining surveillance: “There is an urgent need to maintain biosecurity, active surveillance and collaboration between different actors. Lumpy skin disease reminds us that animal health is an essential piece of public health and that behind each campaign there is a technical, human and economic effort that deserves recognition. Vaccination, along with early detection and accurate information, continues to be the best tool to stop this disease and others, and protect a fundamental sector for our economy and our society,” says Núñez.
Bird flu has already jumped to cows
►If there is an animal disease that is of concern right now, it is avian flu, because it is a zoonotic pathology, that is, it has the capacity to transmit between animals and people. In fact, these days, the first death of an infected person in the US. In addition to decimating wild bird populations around the world (which is why farm chickens are forced to be isolated), the virus has made the leap to mammals and outbreaks have been detected in 40 species in just one year. Mass deaths have been reported in seal colonies and in 2024 a first outbreak was located in a bovine farm in the United States. In the North American country there has been continuous circulation of the virus in dairy cows since then and more than a thousand herds affected in 16 states. The World Organization for Animal Health warns that the persistence of the H5N1 subtype in cattle increases the risk of the virus adapting better to mammals.