Greece could ban movement of sheep, goats if smallpox outbreak spreads

ATHENS (Reuters) -Farmers in Greece face the risk of a nationwide ban on the movement of goat and sheep if veterinarians and stockbreeders don’t step up health checks and hygiene measures on livestock to contain an outbreak of smallpox, the government said on Tuesday.

The outbreak of smallpox, or sheeppox, has already led to the culling of about 2% of the country’s livestock of sheep and goats, data from the Greek agriculture ministry showed.

Smallpox in sheep and goat doesn’t spread to humans but it threatens to increase prices of sheep and goats meat for Greeks already suffering from a cost-of-living crisis and deal a major blow to the export of feta, Greece’s trademark salty cheese made of goat and sheep’s milk.

More than 260,000 sheep and goats were culled and some 1,100 farms acros