PARIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) – France deployed its army to accelerate the vaccination of cattle against lumpy skin disease on Thursday, seeking to contain an outbreak that has fuelled a new wave of farmers’ protests in southern France.
The army flew in hundreds of thousands of livestock vaccines to southwestern France, and will assist in delivering shots to some 750,000 cows.
The spread of lumpy skin disease, a virus affecting cattle, has rekindled discontent among farmers over what they see as a long-term decline in French agriculture due to foreign competition and excessive regulation.
As farmers block highways, furious at a policy of slaughtering whole herds when the virus is detected, the government is accelerating vaccinations to quell the crisis, wary of disruption to year-end holidays.
President Emmanuel Macron has also responded by doubling down on a promise he will not endorse a European Union trade deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc unless safeguards to protect Europe’s farmers are toughened.
France procured 400,000 vaccine doses from the Netherlands to add to its stock of 500,000 vaccines. An A400M military transport plane delivered the extra shots to an army base in the city of Toulouse, army spokesman Colonel Guillaume Verne told reporters.
The government is also drafting in several dozen veterinary doctors from the army to help with the vaccination programme in southern areas, including the remote Ariege region where few civilian vets are available.
The government aims to complete the vaccination programme within a month.
The authorities say the policy of culling herds is necessary to stop the disease spreading across France, which has the largest cattle herd in the European Union.
Some farmers’ unions say the policy destroys livelihoods, adding to deep-seated grievances that include the planned Mercosur trade deal.
French farmers joined European peers at a protest in Brussels on Thursday calling for an EU leaders’ summit not to approve the trade deal.
(Reporting by John Irish and Gus Trompiz in Paris and Benoit Tessier in Toulouse; Editing by Alex Richardson)
