16.12.2025, Paris.
The country’s government actions regarding livestock infected with lumpy skin disease exasperate French farmers, Rossa Primavera News Agency Agricultural Desk wrote.
Farmers in France and several other European Union countries (such as Italy, Poland, and the Netherlands) are extremely dissatisfied with the free trade agreement concluded a year ago by EU head Ursula von der Leyen with the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). European farmers say that agricultural products from MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) are subject to much lower quality standards and are significantly cheaper than EU products. According to those working in the sector, if Latin American agricultural goods flood the EU market, European farmers can forget about making a profit.
Across the European Union, large-scale protests against the MERCOSUR deal are scheduled for December 18. However, French farmers, angered by new hardships and government actions, did not wait for that date. Protests broke out earlier and have already been continuing for several days.
The final straw that overflowed farmers’ patience was the authorities’ decision to eradicate entire cattle herds in which even a single animal is found to be infected with lumpy skin disease, an outbreak of which has begun in the country. Lumpy skin disease is a viral infection of cattle characterized by fever, the formation of dense nodules on the skin, swelling, and lesions of the mucous membranes. Morbidity ranges from 2% to 45%, while mortality is usually below 10%. It poses no danger to humans, as it does not infect people.
The French government is demanding the destruction of entire herds at the first signs of the disease in order to stop its spread. Cattle breeders consider this strategy excessive and a threat to their very existence. Accordingly, their protests have taken on an especially fierce character. The police, in turn, respond to farmers’ use of manure with tear gas.
At present, protests are concentrated in the southwest of the country, where particularly large numbers of cattle breeders operate. A serious clash occurred last Friday, December 12, in the Ariège department, where veterinarians were supposed to destroy more than 200 infected cows on one of the farms.
Farmers rebelled. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters. “The government does not respect us,” said farmers’ representative José Perez.
The atmosphere is tense. “We are at war. Until the state abandons the mass destruction of livestock, this will continue,” said Cédric Nespoulos, a cattle farmer in the Tarn region, where around fifty farmers are blocking the national highway N88.
Tractors are dumping manure, hay, tires, and trash onto the roads. Further blockades and protests are planned, some of them linked to a visit of the minister of agriculture to the region.
The French government is calling for vaccination, but until it is carried out, all eradication measures remain in force. “This allows us to protect the rest of the herd,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
