The recent outbreak of sheep and goat pox in Greece raised concerns among farmers and consumers. In response, officials have slaughtered more than half a million sheep and goats to control the disease. The infection initially appeared in northern Greece in August 2024 and quickly spread and flared up. The result has been the enforcement of extreme measures leaving the agricultural economy with tremendous losses.
Anastasia Siourtou, a farm sheep, whose flock has been directly affected, said she felt a deep sense of loss. The abuse allegation came from the fact that she felt she had failed to protect her animals during this crisis. Her farm is one of many. Tassos Manakas, another farmer in the program, lost 873 sheep in a culling that was ordered on October 9. He spoke about the personal emotional burden that weighed on him. I would come in every morning, and you could hear the animals bleating and pet them,” he recalled. The cull cut John to the quick, making him feel as if he had been mortally wounded. “If you were to cut me that day, I would not bleed,” he said.
Greece’s government has mounted an impressive, aggressive response to the outbreak. They have already culled over 417,000 sheep and goats, roughly 4-5% of the population. The culling decision was taken preventively after one infection was detected on a farm. Farmers affected by the violence are being paid between €132 and €220 per sheep killed depending on its age.
Due to the disease’s relatively fast dispersion throughout all of Greece, agricultural officials are sounding the alarm. A spokesperson from Greece’s Ministry of Rural Development and Food highlighted the preventive measures taken to control sheep pox, stating, “We stuck to the original plan from day one, following the European protocols to the letter,” they told us. Even with these steps in place, there are continuing worries about adherence to biosecurity protocol across all farms. Greece’s Supreme Court has ordered an inquiry into alleged breaches of these protocols.
The country is struggling with an opioid crisis. For farmers, the dual losses of livestock and livelihoods make this crisis hit even harder. Siourtou said other surrounding farms have hidden instances of pox, which makes it more difficult to contain and control the outbreak even further. There is one more farm within a radius of two kilometers. They too had pox cases but concealed it,” she said.
The externalities of the culling go far beyond a single farm, putting Greece’s entire feta cheese production at risk. To be authentic feta, it can only be made in Greece and needs to be at least 70% sheep’s milk. Last year, Greece exported €785 million ($909 million) of feta, mostly produced from sheep milk. Under the current culling measures, dairy experts are cautioning that rising production costs will ensue from a culling-induced milk shortage. Prof. Dimitris Gougoulis commented on this issue, stating that “the limited amount of available milk increases production costs and makes it more difficult to maintain current quantities [of feta] on the market.”
Current vaccines against sheep and goat pox are effective in areas where the disease is endemic. Nevertheless, they remain out of the picture as a credible solution for eliminating the disease from Greece. The government has been proactive in addressing fears over mass vaccination. They’re concerned it could pigeonhole the entire country as endemic for these diseases. This harmful classification would have a chilling effect not just on domestic agriculture but on international trade with potentially disastrous cascading effects.
And as farmers such as Manakas and Siourtou go according to this testing storm, the fate of Greek feta continues to play out a flux. The emotional toll of their losses hits hard and rings loud across the ag community. I had been present the day they culled the sheep. It may have been politically savvy, but it was still extraordinarily vicious, and I’d failed to protect them. Siourtou had this to say about her experience.