Hundreds of thousands of Greek sheep have been slaughtered in the fight against sheep and goat pox. Small dairies already struggle to source sheep milk – the main ingredient of Greece’s iconic feta – and warn of looming shortages and price surges.
An eerie silence where 650 sheep once grazed
Anastasia Siourtou, a veterinarian who expanded her father’s farm near Karditsa, walks through empty sheds. On 12 November authorities culled her entire flock of 650 animals after detecting the disease. “A neighbouring farm hid their outbreak – that’s how it reached us,” she says. The financial blow is crushing, but the emotional one is worse: “I was here the day they killed them. I felt I had failed to protect them.”
“I wouldn’t have bled if you cut me that day”
Near Karditsa, breeder Tasos Manakas lost 873 sheep on 9 October. He now sits in a dusty milking room covered in cobwebs. “The shop is closed,” he says bitterly.
“I used to come every morning, hear them bleat, stroke them. The day they were slaughtered I was here – if you had cut me, no blood would have come out.”
“White gold” under threat
Feta must contain at least 70 % sheep milk. Small producers report severe shortages of raw material. Professor Dimitris Gougoulis from the University of Thessaly warns: “Limited milk drives up production costs and makes it impossible to maintain current feta volumes.” Prices have not yet risen sharply, but that will change if the outbreak continues.
Compensation falls far short
The government pays €132–220 per animal depending on age. Breeders call it nowhere near enough to rebuild flocks or cover lost income.
Government response criticised
Critics slam the state for forming a national scientific committee only in late October 2025 – 14 months after the first case – and for failing to create exclusion zones early on. Understaffed veterinary services and reports of illegal animal transport and hidden burials have worsened the crisis.
A Rural Development Ministry spokesman told the BBC: “We followed EU protocols from the start and nearly eradicated the disease by spring 2025. The October committee was created because many farmers ignored biosecurity rules, causing the explosion of cases.”
Illegal vaccinations complicate control
Committee members claim farmers may have carried out up to one million unauthorised vaccinations, distorting the epidemiological picture and jeopardising feta exports.
Double disaster for some
Breeder Haris Sesklitis near Volos lost 700 sheep to preventive culling – the second time his farm has been destroyed after the 2023 Thessaly floods. Unused hay bales now rot in his yard. “It’s incredibly hard,” he says. “I’m thinking of starting a cattle-fattening unit with my son. We don’t know anything else but raising animals.”
Source: Skai.gr
Also read: Greece paralysed: Farmers seize highways with tractors
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