The councillor for Livestock, María Jesús Susinos, reiterated this Monday her call to livestock farmers in Cantabria to continue vaccinating their holdings against bluetongue and epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHE). She recalled that the regional executive branch makes available to them, at no cost, both the vaccination doses and their administration by authorised veterinarians.
Susinos stressed the importance of continuing to invest in prevention in order to safeguard the regional livestock herd against bluetongue, a disease that continues to report cases in neighbouring autonomous communities.
Along these lines, she highlighted that the results of the strategy applied in Cantabria "are evident", as reflected in the health situation maps from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, where the community appears "free" from circulation of the disease thanks to vaccination against serotypes 3, 4 and 8.
"The data show that the joint effort of the Administration and of the livestock farmers is producing results", she said, while underlining that Cantabria has opted for prevention, offering free vaccination, and "we can see how our health situation is more favourable than that of other territories where outbreaks and positive cases continue to appear".
The councillor specified that throughout this year the Government of Cantabria has allocated 500,000 euros for the purchase of vaccines and to cover the costs of administering them on the holdings, so that immunisation does not involve any outlay for professionals in the sector.
Likewise, the regional executive’s draft 2027 budgets include a new item of 500,000 euros to maintain this line of support, ensuring continuity "of a fundamental tool" to curb the spread of the disease and reduce its effects on livestock activity to the minimum.
Susinos again stressed that the involvement of livestock farmers is "essential" for preserving the current health situation and appealed for maintaining the vaccination levels achieved to date.
"Protecting animal health is protecting the profitability of our holdings and the competitiveness of our livestock sector, and that is why we will continue to put all the necessary resources in place so that no livestock farmer has to assume the cost of these vaccines", she said.
In Cantabria, vaccination against serotypes 3, 4 and 8 of blue tongue continues to be active, a preventive measure that allows a notable reduction in the risk of the spread of the disease and strengthens the protection of the livestock population as a whole.
The head of Livestock has insisted on the need for those responsible for the farms to follow the recommendations set by the veterinary services and to take advantage of this support that the regional Government puts at their disposal.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD)
In relation to EHD, Susinos has highlighted that the strategy designed by the Government of Cantabria has managed to "keep this disease under control" in the autonomous territory.
It has recalled that during 2025 and so far in 2026, no positive animal has been detected.
As for vaccination, in 2024, 25,668 head of livestock belonging to 419 farms were immunized, while in 2025 the campaign reached 16,534 animals from 290 livestock farms.
In addition, the Cantabrian Executive has made an "important financial effort" to support the sector against this pathology through various aid decrees, with nearly five million euros earmarked for vaccines and compensation.