Confagricoltura is once again pressing the Region to understand the status of the 2025 vaccination campaign planning against bluetongue, the catarrhal fever of sheep that since 2000 has infected flocks in a good part of Sardinia, causing losses of several million euros to the livestock system every year.
The president of the trade association, Stefano Taras, calls upon the Agriculture and Health departments, urging an urgent meeting, the last one dates back to mid-September, when the epidemic was raging in thousands of companies. A new face-to-face meeting, Taras insists, is necessary to "avoid, like every season, a delayed and constantly emergency management of the phenomenon", foreseeing the right timing for the purchase of vaccines and an ad hoc calendar to be respected for treatments on animals.
"Implementing a timely program", the president explains, "means intervening efficiently even in the most at-risk areas, avoiding the spread of the disease which, in addition to the sheep sector, often also affects beef cattle breeding, blocked in their movements because they are potential vectors of the disease".
For Confagricoltura, intervening within a reasonable time frame "means taking into account the signals that come from the sentinel leaders, located in different areas of the island, through which the potential serotypes of bluetongue can be defined - there are 26 variants known to date - which could characterize the seasonal epidemic".
Some data released by the association make the size of the phenomenon clear: in the 2024 season, 4,067 outbreaks were recorded throughout Sardinia, with 209,778 heads affected, of which 72,449 died. In the general analysis, approximately 50% of the entire regional sheep herd is involved, with 1,435,876 animals affected by the spread of the disease.
