Greek farmers dealt with floods last year. Now they're facing goat plague.
After losing 750 of her livestock to Greece's disastrous floods last year, dairy farm owner Ioanna Karra now has a new fear: goat plague. The highly contagious virus was first detected in Greece on July 11, and the government is still investigating how it arrived. - REUTERS
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00:00After being hit by disastrous floods last year, Greek farmers are facing a new crisis,
00:08goat plague.
00:09The virus was first detected in Greece in July.
00:12It doesn't infect humans, but is highly contagious among goats and sheep, and can kill up to
00:1770 percent of those infected.
00:20Once a case is detected, the entire flock is cold.
00:24Thousands of animals have been culled and hundreds of thousands tested.
00:28The spread is forcing farmers to implement strict measures to protect their livestock
00:32and in turn, their livelihood.
00:36This is the Stalos dairy farm.
00:38It sits in Greece's Thessaly plain.
00:40The region accounts for 25 percent of Greece's agricultural produce and 5 percent of its
00:46GDP.
00:48It was devastated by floods in September 2023, affecting some 30,000 farmers.
00:56Stalos farm owner Ioanna Kara says around 750 of their 800 animals drowned in the floods.
01:03She says they cannot financially bear the slightest damage this year.
01:09Now with the outbreak of the plague, we have become much stricter with security measures
01:13in the unit.
01:18First of all, the whole unit is fenced.
01:22No vehicle comes inside the unit area and the vehicles that come by necessity, for example
01:27the vehicle that picks up the milk and the vehicles for feed, are sprayed before entering.
01:35Kara says the plague was a, quote, crisis before the crisis.
01:40She says the virus came into Greece because veterinary clinics are understaffed and do
01:44not make the necessary checks on imported animals.
01:48During filming for this report, her farm was free of goat plague.
01:52The government recently imposed a temporary ban on the slaughter and movement of sheep
01:56and goats.
01:58It means Kara is not able to buy more animals to bulk up her flock, but she can sell the
02:02milk.
02:04Senior Agriculture Ministry official Yorgos Stratakos says the government is looking into
02:09compensation for those affected by the ban and has ramped up its efforts.
02:17We have a massive operation taking place at the moment with more than 140 scientists in
02:22the field, in medical labs and in offices in order to support the administration of
02:28the operation.
02:29And at the moment, they are in a state of red alert.
02:32We are operating with tens of veterinary teams in the field and we are trying to complete
02:36the clinical checks as soon as possible.
02:43Stratakos says the root of the virus is still being investigated, but that it was imported
02:48from another country.
02:50The goat plague was first discovered in the Ivory Coast in 1942.
02:54The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the disease results in losses
03:01of up to $2.1 billion globally each year.