French farmers furious after vets cull cows for 'lumpy skin disease'

French veterinarians Friday slaughtered a herd of cows thought to be diseased after police dispersed angry farmers trying to protect them, as an agricultural union called for nationwide protests.

French farmers are unhappy with the state's management of an outbreak of nodular dermatitis – widely known as lumpy skin disease.

They also say the state is not doing enough to protect the sector, with the European Union next week expected to sign on to a trade deal with South America that farmers say will flood the market with cheap agricultural products that will outcompete them.

Earlier this week, hundreds of agricultural workers demonstrated for two days outside a farm in the southern area of Ariege near the Spanish border, after the authorities said more than 200 cows would have to be euthanized after discovering a single case of nodular dermatitis.

Protesters chopped down trees and set up barricades to stop veterinary staff from entering the farm in the village of Les Bordes-sur-Arize. But police dispersed them after nightfall using teargas, and early on Friday morning escorted in a team to carry out the culling.

A handful of remaining protesters watched as a crane picked up the carcasses of the first slain Blonde d'Aquitaine cows and deposited them in a tipper truck.

In a nearby field, fellow herd members continued to munch on grass.

"What we're doing is stupid," said 56-year-old cereal farmer Guilhem Boudin, one of the demonstrators watching.

"Only one animal was actually ill. It died, and instead of targeting just the sick animals to cull them, they want to kill all of them," he said.

'End to this madness'

Lumpy skin disease, which cannot be passed to humans but can be fatal for cattle, first appeared in France in June. 

The state's strategy to stamp out what they describe as a very contagious disease has since been to kill all animals in affected herds, as well as "emergency vaccination" of all cattle within a 50-kilometer radius.

Several unions have called that approach ineffective, with the left-wing Peasant Confederation on Friday saying it was "more scary than the illness itself", urging an end to the culls and more vaccinations.

It called for "blockades across France to put an end to this madness".

But the authorities have stood by their plan.

"To save the entire industry, slaughter is the only solution," Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard told Le Parisien newspaper.

Farmers also plan to drive tractors to Brussels next week to vent, as the European Union decides whether to authorise a free-trade agreement with South American trade bloc Mercosur.

The so-called Mercosur deal has been two decades in the making. The pact will allow the European Union to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America, while facilitating the entry of South American beef, sugar, rice, honey and soybeans into Europe. 

'In shock'

In Les Bordes-sur-Arize, regional prefect Herve Brabant said that the brothers who owned the farm had agreed to have the herd slaughtered.

But protester Pierre-Guillaume Mercadal, from the local Rural Confederation union, said one brother had agreed and one was opposed.

"They are tearing this family apart," he said.

Marina Verge, 33, the daughter of one of the owners, said that killing the cows amounted to destroying "almost 40 years" of their life's work.

"They're in shock," she said. "You don't imagine finding yourself without livestock overnight."

Some 3,000 of the 33,000 cattle in Ariege have already been vaccinated.

The World Organisation for Animal Health says that cases of nodular dermatitis have also been reported in Italy this year.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, the disease is present in many African countries.

In 2012, it spread from the Middle East to Greece, Bulgaria and the Balkans. A vaccination programme halted that epidemic.