Catalonia Boosts Blue Tongue Vaccination Efforts with One Million Dose Delivery
The Catalan Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food has received a new batch of blue tongue disease vaccines, containing one million doses. This will enable veterinary teams to continue with the final phase of vaccinations, which is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Rosa Altisent, Director General of Agriculture and Livestock, explained that over 88% of the total sheep population has already been vaccinated. "We have vaccinated 2,239 flocks, totaling 225,241 animals, and only a few farms in the southern regions of the country remain, where no cases have been detected," she specified.
In the case of cattle, Catalonia has 558,000 heads of livestock, of which over 180,000 have received the full vaccination course, which consists of two doses administered three weeks apart.
The first outbreak of blue tongue serotype 8 in Catalonia was declared on June 10, 2022, and officially notified to the Veterinary Alert Network (RASVE). Since then, a total of 374 outbreaks have been detected.
Altisent noted that the vaccination strategy helped to contain the disease’s spread, preventing it from reaching the southern regions where vaccination was introduced later. Initially, areas with higher disease incidence and sheep populations were prioritized.
Currently, the disease incidence is very low, with only a few new cases registered, indicating that the situation is stable. Altisent confirmed, "We are on track to eradicate blue tongue disease in Catalonia."
