Overview
- The Ariège prefecture issued an infection order mandating the depopulation of a 208-head herd in Les-Bordes-sur-Arize and set a 50 km regulated zone with surveillance, movement restrictions and vaccination.
- Hundreds of farmers used tractors and barricades to block access to the site to stop euthanasia, with gendarmes on scene and local reports indicating the operation could occur as early as Thursday morning.
- Local unions and the chamber of agriculture submitted an experimental plan to the ministry to replace whole-herd culls with targeted removal of infected animals, PCR monitoring for 4–6 weeks, a 5 km protection zone and expanded vaccination.
- The Agriculture Ministry maintains the current three-pillar strategy works and the disease is under control, while formal reviews on preventive mass vaccination are underway ahead of a late-January decision meeting.
- Since June, France has recorded a little over 100 outbreaks and roughly 3,000 cattle euthanized nationwide, and a new case was confirmed in the Hautes-Pyrénées during the Ariège mobilization.