Overview
- Authorities count 113 outbreaks and 3,300 cattle culled this year as of Dec. 14, equal to about 0.02% of the national herd.
- An additional one million vaccine doses are being deployed in affected regions, on top of one million already administered in recent months.
- French rules order full-herd culling after a single confirmed case and restrict animal movements from outbreak zones, a strategy backed by FNSEA and denounced by smaller unions.
- Farmers continue blockades in the southwest with tractors and manure dumps, and police used teargas after a herd of over 200 cows was slaughtered near the Spanish border.
- The virus does not infect humans but can trigger trade curbs, with Britain lifting a raw-milk cheese ban earlier this month as Canada maintains limits, and officials warn uncontrolled spread could threaten about 1.5 million cattle.