FRENCH cattle producers blockaded major highways with tractors and set fire to hay bales on Saturday to protest their government’s strict response to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD).

LSD causes swelling of lymph nodes across the body of infected animals. Source: AW Coetzer, E Tupparainen, S Babiuk and DB Wallace (2018). Lumpy skin disease. In Infectious Diseases of Livestock.

Farming industry representatives say the policy of compulsory whole-herd culling when a single infected animal is detected is heavy-handed and economically devastating, according to French newspaper Le Monde.

The protests follow the destruction of entire cattle herds in parts of south-west France, including one case where more than 200 cattle were slaughtered after a single positive detection.

Police escorts were required to carry out the cull, further inflaming tensions between farmers and authorities. Several farming unions argue healthy animals are being destroyed unnecessarily and are calling instead for a vaccination-focused approach.

Lumpy skin disease is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle that does not affect humans but can be fatal for livestock and causes severe production losses.

French authorities say drastic measures are essential to prevent the disease spreading further, warning that up to 1.5 million cattle could be at risk if containment fails.

Alongside the culls, France has launched an emergency vaccination campaign, with plans to vaccinate around one million cattle in affected regions, in addition to another million vaccinated since July. The response has split farming organisations, with some supporting full depopulation of infected herds while others strongly oppose it.

The outbreak, first detected in France in June, shows how quickly LSD can spread once established, particularly as the virus is transmitted by biting insects such as flies and mosquitoes. The scale of the response highlights the high cost of losing disease-free status.

The French experience is a reminder of the threat LSD poses to the Australian livestock sector and broader regional economy, with the disease now present in Timor-Leste, several hundred kilometres from Australia’s northern doorstep.