Bluetongue virus threatens Sardinia's historic sheep farming industry

By Antonella Cinelli and Valentina Consiglio

On the island of Sardinia, a bedrock of Italian sheep farming, breeder Michela Dessi has seen 150 of her flock die and 140 lose their lambs in the last few months due to an insect-borne disease called bluetongue that is ravaging local livestock.

Sardinia is home to three million sheep, almost double the number of people, and accounts for 40% of Italy's sheep population. The industry employs more than 27,000 people and is an intrinsic part of the Mediterranean island's cultural identity, thanks to products such as the salty "pecorino" cheese made with sheep's milk.

All of this is threatened by the viral infection, which has hit around a quarter of Sardinia's 13,000 sheep farms this year, killing 40,000 sheep and lambs, compared to just 5,000 in 2023.

"The sheep start to get sick, lame, come down with fever, and die after a few hours or days, sometimes suffocated by their own saliva," said Dessi, who has been running the family farm in the south of the island since 2007, with 600 sheep.

Other symptoms of the disease, which also affects cattle with less deadly consequences, are mouth ulcers, discharge from the mouth and nose, and the blueness of the tongue from which it gets its name.

Bluetongue outbreaks have occurred in several parts of Europe in recent months, helped by global warming, which favours the proliferation of the vector insect - but nowhere with such a devastating impact as in Sardinia.

The disease, which does not affect humans or the safety of animal meat or milk, was first reported in the 18th century in South Africa and arrived in Italy in 2000.

The vehicle for the virus is a tiny 1-3 millimetre-long insect called Culicoides, which is now prospering not only in summer but also into the autumn as the Mediterranean basin becomes hotter.

"Sardinia has been particularly affected, with an exponential contagion we have never seen before" said Luca Saba, the local head of the Italian agriculture lobby group Coldiretti. "And the emergency is far from over".

FAILED VACCINATIONS

The many strains of the virus are thwarting attempts to halt its spread through vaccination.

"There are 27 serotypes in the world and we cannot know if a different one will appear from one year to the next," said Sandro Rolesu, health director of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Sardinia.

"We were vaccinating for type 8, which was present last year, and we ended up with type 3," he said, adding that Italy will be vaccinating for type 3 next year.

Giovanni Filippini, head of the health ministry's animal welfare department, said the government is working on an emergency plan "based on predictive models that can prevent the spread" of bluetongue, but declined to provide details.

Meanwhile farmers already hit by one of Sardinia's driest ever summers are counting the cost and calling on Rome for financial help.

Sardinia's agriculture chief Gianfranco Satta said the island's regional government had set aside 13.5 million euros ($14.7 million) to compensate affected farmers, but Coldiretti estimates losses as high as 25 million.

"We are on our knees and companies are closing," said Roberto Congia, an official with the Sardinian Shepherds' Movement, a local lobby group.