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.