The test had come back positive just a few hours earlier, confirming the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Dimitris Triantafyllos’ flock in Pelopi, in northern Lesvos. All 200 sheep of his unit had to be culled and buried in a trench with lime. “We’re shattered; I don’t know what we’re going to do,” the sheep farmer told Kathimerini, which visited the island last week. “This flock was our life. I loved these animals. We got a phone call telling us to dig and trench and saying we needed to be there [for the culling],” added his wife, Katerina Tsesmetzi.
On the morning of March 26, the couple went down to the village center along with other livestock farmers and their families. They were overwhelmed. Even some of the toughest among them broke down in tears. They started walking after hearing that state veterinary teams were in Pelopi to cull their herds but were stopped by the police on the road to the pens. Most of them were furious at the director of the local veterinary service, who, they claimed, had approved the mass culling before the farmers were informed.
The outbreak
The northeastern Aegean island has been struggling in recent weeks to contain a serious outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral illness that primarily affects cattle, sheep and goats, pigs, and certain wild cloven-hoofed animals. Just 17 cases had been confirmed by Friday, but more than 3,300 animals were slated for slaughter.
The disease is not transmitted to humans and is not a public health hazard. The risk is significant, however, for the island’s economy, which relies largely on livestock farming. In 2025, Lesvos produced 52,000 tons of sheep’s and goat’s milk, as well as 5-6% of Greece’s total output of feta cheese with protected designation of origin (PDO).
‘This flock was our life. I loved these animals. We got a phone call telling us to dig and trench and saying we needed to be there [for the culling]’
In the wake of the first confirmed case in March, the authorities imposed a strict lockdown on all livestock products. Aside from the movement of animals, the export of meat, milk and cheese from Lesvos has been banned until further notice. This is not because the products are not suitable for consumption, but out of concern that the disease could spread to mainland Greece via the tires of transport trucks.
The first case of foot-and-mouth was identified on March 16 in the village of Pelopi at a mixed farm raising sheep, goats and cattle. A private veterinarian who had been called in to assist with a case of dystocia in a female animal noticed suspicious symptoms such as excessive salivation, lesions on the hooves and lameness. The health authorities in Athens were immediately notified and orders were issued to establish a red zone with a three-kilometer radius around the farm, followed by a second zone extending to 10 kilometers.
According to data from the Ministry of Rural Development, the inner zone includes more than 100 sheep and goat farms and 40 cattle farms. Lesvos’ total livestock population is estimated at 420,000 sheep and goats and around 5,000 cattle.
Slaughterhouses on the island have also been shut down. In the run-up to the holidays, approximately 70,000 sheep and goats were expected to be slaughtered, 25,000 of which would have been exported to Italy and Spain for Catholic Easter.
Starting March 26, no cars were allowed to cross the red zone without being sprayed with disinfectant by crews posted at the entrances to all the villages.
“We had foot-and-mouth disease on the island before, in 1994, but the infected animals were culled, not entire flocks,” said Panagiotis Avagianos, a livestock farmer from Napi, a village whose grazing lands border those of Pelopi.
“They’re wiping out entire flocks; This is now becoming a matter of survival for many,” added Panagiotis Hatzipanagiotis, president of the Napi Agricultural Cooperative. “The veterinary service had long been calling for disinfection measures at the port, the island’s main gateway, but that never happened.”
Difficult diagnosis
A veterinary response team was dispatched by the European Union to the island on March 26 to inspect how biosafety measures were being implemented. The EUVET team visited cheesemaking units, an industrial abattoir and the disinfection points along the road network.
There are shared grazing lands in northern Lesvos, and many animals roam freely. “Sheep are often subclinical or show no symptoms at all, which makes diagnosis more difficult. Mass testing is being carried out to ensure that the disease is contained on the island,” an official at the Rural Development Ministry’s General Directorate of Veterinary Services, Maria Gianniou, told Kathimerini.
The last time Greece saw a case of foot-and-mouth was in 2001. “This is a Category A disease, so once an outbreak is confirmed, strict control and eradication measures must be immediately implemented. The virus survives for a shorter time in the environment than sheep pox, but it is more aggressive,” said Gianniou.
Experts said the European Commission’s vaccine bank is well stocked with doses for foot-and-mouth. Sources at the ministry in Athens explained that there are different strategies for dealing with the disease. Last fall, Germany did not carry out a vaccination campaign but culled all cloven-hoofed animals within a 10-kilometer zone. Hungary and Slovakia opted for vaccination, though the latter ultimately culled them. Cyprus, on the other hand, has moved forward with preventive vaccination, a measure livestock farmers in Lesvos are calling for.
The same ministry sources told Kathimerini that all options remain open. “Our priority is twofold: on the one hand, the rapid detection of the disease, and, on the other, meaningful support for all those affected through immediate compensation, as we did with sheep pox,” said Spyros Protopsaltis, secretary-general for Rural Development and Food, who visited the island.
Among the measures announced by the government is compensation for milk produced in Lesvos after March 15; the amount is paid based on invoices to cheesemakers, who continue to purchase from livestock farmers at pre-crisis prices.
Panagiotis Tstanis runs one of Lesvos’ oldest dairies in the village of Agra. His thoughts have very much been with the island’s livestock farmers these days, his trusted, long-standing suppliers, as he described them, people he has known for decades. “Our cheeses are sitting in refrigerators and drying rooms,” he told Kathimerini. The unit produces PDO feta, ladotyri and graviera using traditional methods and 80% of its feta is exported to the United States – now the renowned product will have to wait. “We are not even allowed to sell the cheeses that have been aging in the facility for months. I don’t know whether that makes sense, but the entire market is falling back a step,” he said.
From Turkey?
Veterinarians explain that the strain of the foot-and-mouth disease virus detected in Lesvos is of the same serotype as the one identified in recent months along the nearby Turkish coast. How the virus may have crossed into Greek flocks remains unknown. It could even have been carried by an infected bird; the island’s eastern shore, after all, lies just 15-20 kilometers from Turkey.
Before we blame birds, however, people and goods move regularly from one side to the other. There is a ferry connection between Mytilene and coastal cities in Turkey three times a week and tourist arrivals have increased. A second route links the islands of the northeastern Aegean with Kavala. Animal feed and other goods are transported to the island, while live animals for restocking flocks are cheaper in Turkey. Nevertheless, there is no firm evidence of illegal animal transport to Lesvos.