Intra-EU livestock imports led to the first and largest outbreak of peste des petits ruminants in Greece

Peste of the Small Ruminants (pestis ovium et caprarum) is an extremely dangerous and contagious viral disease that causes high fever, pneumonia, diarrhea, mouth ulcers and often ends in death after three to eight days after the onset of fever. Young animals are most seriously affected.

The disease usually affects sheep and goats, with the latter being most seriously affected. Cases of PPR have also been found in domestic deer, goitered gazelles. Although the virus can also infect pigs and cattle , they do not show clinical signs and cannot transmit the disease . This disease is not dangerous for people.

According to the Associated Press, citing Greek news agencies, according to the Greek Ministry of Agriculture, this is the first case of detection of this disease in the country. “Veterinarians discovered cases of sheep and goat plague in the Corinth and Larissa regions by tracing the route taken by animals imported from a certain country. Another case was later discovered in the Athens area, west of the capital, Deputy Agriculture Minister Christos Kellas told state broadcaster ERT, bringing the total number of infected animals to more than a dozen when the outbreak was declared on July 11. Currently, more than 9,000 animals are subject to slaughter, including 7,000 already killed in central Greece. There is no cure for this disease.

The Greek Ministry of Agriculture explained that the country mainly imports sheep and goats from Turkey, Albania and Romania. Romanian authorities declared the outbreak on July 19, eight days after the first cases were detected at a farm in Baia near the Black Sea coast. By July 26, the virus had spread to several Romanian farms, and some 58,000 sheep and goats were slaughtered in response.

“If the animals were brought from Romania, they entered freely. Animals are not checked at the border when entering from an EU country,” Kellas told Skai TV, adding that Romania did not declare an outbreak until the first cases in Greece. He called Greece's response to the outbreak "the largest veterinary operation ever undertaken in the country."

Greek farmers have increased animal imports after local flocks were decimated by last year's catastrophic floods caused by Hurricane Daniel, which killed tens of thousands of sheep, the Associated Press noted.