Toledo (EFE).- The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) has reported that a new outbreak of sheep and goat pox has been detected in a dairy sheep farm in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real).
According to information from the ministry, the sheep farm has a census of 1,216 animals and is located in the sheep and goat pox (VOC) restriction zone, as it is 1,000 meters away from the last reported outbreak of the disease on 8 December. February, which was also in the municipality of Alcázar de San Juan.
For this reason, within the reinforced VOC surveillance program, the farm was subjected to clinical inspection and salivary swab samples were taken, without detecting clinical symptoms compatible with the disease, but on March 17, inconclusive results were obtained in the Central Veterinary Laboratory (LCV) of the MAPA in Algete (Madrid), National Reference Laboratory for the disease in Spain.
Four sick animals were detected on March 20
As a consequence, a new official visit was made to the farm on March 20, during which compatible lesions were detected in four animals and again samples of salivary swabs were taken, in which the presence of the virus was finally confirmed.
The MAPA has indicated that this farm, being in the previously established restriction zone, had no animal entry movements in the last 2 months, and the only exit movements were destined for a slaughterhouse located within the same restriction zone .
Possible epidemiological relationships with previous outbreaks are being investigated, with no links through vehicles or workers to date.
Fourteen outbreaks of sheep pox in Castilla-La Manch
With this new outbreak of sheep pox, fourteen have already been detected in Castilla-La Mancha, specifically twelve outbreaks in the province of Cuenca and 2 in Ciudad Real.
At present, all the outbreaks are considered closed except for the last two outbreaks reported in Cuenca -specifically one in La Alberca de Záncara, and one in Tébar- and the last two in Ciudad Real, both in Alcázar de San Juan.
The Ministry of Agriculture has recalled that sheep pox is a non-zoonotic disease that exclusively affects sheep and goats, and in no case can it be transmitted to humans, neither by direct contact with animals, nor through handling. and/or consumption of products derived from them.
The restrictions will be lifted, except in five cattle regions
In addition, sources from the Ministry of Agriculture of Castilla-La Mancha have told EFE that the forecast to lift the immobilization of cattle in practically the entire region is maintained at the end of this week, except in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real ), so that the animals can leave the farms to the feedlots.
Thus, movements can be carried out throughout the province of Albacete and in practically all of the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real and Cuenca, while cattle will only be immobilized in five cattle regions, around the known focus of Alcázar de San Juan.
Therefore, the livestock regions of Tomelloso and Manzanares (Ciudad Real), Belmonte (Cuenca) and Madridejos and Quintanar de la Orden (Toledo) remain immobilized.
Some 6,000 sheep and goat farms in Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Toledo and Albacete, which have around 3.5 million head, have been immobilized since the beginning of February due to sheep pox.