Lesvos: three new foot-and-mouth disease cases

Three new cases of foot-and-mouth disease were found on Lesvos, according to reports by enikos.gr and TA NEA. Two of them concern Stypsi and the third was found in a village of the West Lesvos municipality. Officials’ concern is focused on the free-ranging goats and sheep in the island’s mountainous zones, since this situation makes it harder to locate, count and carry out health checks on livestock. The new tally adds to a previous picture of 76 cases across 116 livestock units, reported in spring. No details have been made public on the number of animals involved in the three new cases.

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, meaning cattle, goats, sheep and pigs, and it is not among the diseases that pose a threat to public health through food. Its significance is agricultural and economic: the virus spreads through direct contact, contaminated materials, vehicles and footwear, and even through the air over short distances, which is why the standard response protocol involves protection and surveillance zones around each outbreak, a ban on moving animals and products, intensified monitoring of farms, and strict biosecurity measures for anyone entering stables.

On Lesvos the problem takes on a particular dimension because of how livestock farming is practised there. A large share of the animal stock grazes freely on mountainous and semi-mountainous land, without fencing and without constant supervision, meaning flocks from different farms come into contact with one another. This makes contact tracing difficult and slows the application of restrictive measures. At the same time, the island relies heavily on livestock products and their processing, so every new outbreak translates into lost income for units already burdened by previous waves.

The coming period will be decided by the speed of monitoring. Effectiveness depends on whether veterinarians manage to record and check the free-ranging flocks of the mountainous zones before the virus reaches new areas, as well as on how consistently farmers report suspicious symptoms, which is the first warning signal. The question of compensation for affected units also remains open, since in practice it determines whether producers will report incidents promptly. So far it has not been made known whether the three new cases are linked to each other or to previous outbreaks on the island. Coverage of health issues continues on the Health page, and the impact on local communities in the Society section.