Agriculture ministry officials have approved a new batch of €4.2 million in compensation payments to livestock farmers who lost more than 75,000 animals to culling amid the twin epidemics of sheep and goat pox and foot-and-mouth disease afflicting the country.
According to the latest available official data, provided in late May, nearly 490,000 sheep and goats have been culled due to the pox outbreak since it started in August 2024, threatening Greece’s key feta cheese export industry.
A ministry statement Tuesday said the bulk of the compensation would be paid to farmers on the eastern Aegean Sea island of Lesvos, where the foot-and-mouth epidemic that broke out in mid-March has been contained so far.
A total €2.84 million will be paid to 73 Lesvos farmers for 17,285 slaughtered animals.
Another €1.38 million will go to 103 farmers in several parts of Greece who lost a total 58,031 animals to the government-driven culling drive designed to slow and eventually stop the spread of the highly-contagious sheep and goat pox, which has ravaged farms in much of the country over the past two years.
