A lesser harm for breeders from Béarn and has already been confronted for several months with another …
A lesser evil for breeders from Béarn and has already soupped for several months with another epizootic with bovine tuberculosis, which had brought the prefect of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Jean-Marie Girier to unveil in February a reinforced action plan built on five pillars: epidemiology with the creation of a reinforced surveillance area, a better management of the wildlife, Biosecurity in farms, sanitation of homes and the support of breeders and their loved ones, from an economic and psychological point of view.
8 households in Béarn
A single front for the moment and a situation generally under control with an epizootic which, failing to have been stopped, seems braked in its extension. On May 13, the prefecture counted 19 proven households and a strong suspicion in a farm. Less than three months later, the official figures report 26 households, including 21 identified since 1is January 2025: 13 homes in soule discovered between fall and spring (the last declared in early June); 5 homes discovered in the Basque Country outside the Soule between February and July 2025 (the last linked to animal movements) and 8 focus discovered in the Béarn sector between March and July 2025. The prefecture depicts a reassuring table by indicating that “sanitation measures are engaged in the vast majority of homes and will continue in the coming weeks and months with the commitment of breeders and veterinarians”. It also recalls that three farms have already been requalified and resume normal operating activity.
Baking hunting
But the efforts are intensifying so that the situation does not worsen, especially in the surveillance component of tuberculosis in wild fauna with sustained traps (659 trapped badgers, 88 of which were declared positive or 13 %). The prefecture recalls that control measures are implemented in these positive burrows to protect cattle herds and that the surveillance card has been updated.
As promised in May, a plenary meeting will be held at the start of the school year. The date is now fixed: the prefect Jean-Marie Girier will chair a departmental tuberculosis committee on September 10, 2025 with all stakeholders, a few days before the start of the prophylaxis campaign fixed on October 1, 2025. By then, it is necessary to hope that this battle to be fought. Because on the nodular dermatosis file, the State repeated that selective slaughter strategy was not envisaged …