Greece's deadly 'goat plague' threatens its trademark feta cheese

Feta cheese – Greece's "white gold" – is under threat after a deadly "goat plague" resurfaced in Europe. 

The "highly contagious" peste des petits ruminants (PPR) virus was detected for the first time in Greece on 11 July, in the central Thessaly region, but spread quickly across the country and into neighbouring Romania, said Euronews. More than 300,000 animals have since been tested and about 9,000 euthanised.

Greek authorities have temporarily banned the movement or slaughter of sheep and goats to stem the spread, and the EU has adopted "urgent procedures" for Greece and Romania. But the disease poses a "significant threat" to the production of Greece's trademark feta cheese, "a cornerstone of its economy". 

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The deadly plague

PPR was first discovered in Ivory Coast in 1942, but has since spread around the world to more than 70 countries. It does not affect humans but it can kill between 80% and 100% of infected goats and sheep. The disease causes losses of up to $2.1 billion (£1.65 billion) globally each year, according to estimates by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. 

"It is known to spread through infected tears, mucus and tiny droplets when animals cough," said Mail Online. Symptoms include fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, and diarrhoea. 

Once the virus is detected, "the entire flock is culled, the affected farm is disinfected and authorities test animals in nearby areas", said Reuters – as per EU protocol. The ban on movement means farmers can't buy more animals to "bulk up their flock".

The death toll from the outbreak is "not yet devastating", but the numbers "worry" farmers who are already battling the impacts of climate change, including "blistering heat and erratic rainfall". 

Many are still struggling with the consequences of record storms last September, which flooded about 35,000 acres in Thessaly – a region that accounts for 25% of domestic agricultural produce. About 30,000 farmers were affected.

"We were talking about a possible crisis before the crisis," said one dairy farmer in Thessaly, who lost nearly all her 800 animals and equipment in the floods. "We cannot bear the slightest damage for a second year in a row."

The agriculture ministry said the ban on movement and slaughter was preventative, aimed at "limiting the spread and eradication of the disease". It will last until Sunday.

The risk to Greek feta

Industry officials "sought to dispel fears" that feta – the "mainstay of the Mediterranean diet" – could be "imperilled", said The Guardian. 

Feta cheese is undoubtedly a "major economic driver" for Greece, said Georgios Stratakos, a senior agriculture ministry official. About 40% of Greek feta is made from milk produced in Thessaly.

The outbreak "won't endanger feta exports", said Christos Tsopanos, a senior figure at the Association of Greek Livestock (SEK). "Our country has 14 million goats and sheep, more than any other [EU] state." (According to Eurostat, last updated in 2022, the EU has about 11 million goats in total. But Greece did boast the highest EU numbers: about 25% of the bloc's total goat population.) Romania and Greece have the second and third largest sheep herds in the EU behind Spain, with 10.2 and 7.3 million respectively, according to the most recent figures.

The outbreak is only the second of its kind ever recorded in the EU; the first was in 2018 in Bulgaria. But there have also been outbreaks in Turkey and Georgia. The Greek agriculture ministry said an investigation was under way to determine the source of the outbreak, but did not rule out "suspicious imports" from abroad. Farmers believe PPR was brought to Greece via animals from Romania, said Dimitris Moskos, vice-president of the Association of Greek Livestock.

At the moment, the risk of PPR reaching the UK is "negligible", according to an assessment by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) quoted in Mail Online. Importing live animals from Greece was banned after a separate disease – goat pox – was detected last October. 

But cheese and milk are still being imported from Greece, including nearly 4,000 tonnes between 1 May and 12 July. About 1.6% of those products were unpasteurised; i.e. they have not been heat-treated to kill pathogens. "We will continue to monitor the situation, as this is an important exotic disease which will be a concern for the EU," said Defra.