Greece brings in restrictions over disease which kills ’80 to 100 per cent’

Athens: Greece has announced new restrictions with UK tourists warned after a PLAGUE spread in the European Union holiday hotspot. Greece has ordered nationwide restrictions for goat and sheep to combat a deadly viral outbreak.

Greece has banned the transportation of sheep and goats across the country to try to contain a highly contagious infection known as “goat plague”. “The movement of sheep and goats for breeding, fattening and slaughter is banned throughout Greece,” the agriculture ministry said.

It said new infection cases had been detected in the central Larissa region and in Corinth in the south. So far, some 7,000 animals in herds where the disease has been identified have been culled in the hardest-hit central Thessaly region.

And another 1,200 were also added early this week, regional governor Dimitris Kouretas said Monday. The virus, also known as Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), can kill between 80% and 100% of infected animals. It does not affect humans.

The World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), an intergovernmental body based in Paris, describes PPR as “characterized by severe morbidity and mortality rates” with a high economic impact in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, where goats and sheep are an important source of food.

It adds: “Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a viral disease, caused by a morbillivirus closely related to rinderpest virus, which affects goats, sheep, and some wild relatives of domesticated small ruminants, as well as camels. It was first reported in Ivory Coast in 1942.

“It is characterised by severe morbidity and mortality rates, and has a high economic impact in areas of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, where small ruminants contribute to guaranteeing livelihoods.

“Affected animals present high fever and depression, along with eye and nose discharges. Animals cannot eat, as the mouth becomes covered in painful erosive lesions and the animals suffer from severe pneumonia and diarrhoea. Death is frequently the outcome.”