Greece bans moving goats and sheep as 'goat plague' spreads

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has banned moving sheep and goats from their farms to try to contain a viral infection known as "goat plague" after new cases were detected over the weekend, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

The virus, also known as Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), does not affect humans but is highly contagious among goats and sheep and can kill up to 70% of those infected.

About 8,000 animals have been culled and more than 200,000 tested, mainly in the central Thessaly region where authorities first detected the outbreak on July 11, Georgios Stratakos, a senior agriculture ministry official, told Reuters.

Two more cases were detected at farms in the central Larissa region and in the southern area of Corinth over the weekend, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

"Tightening the security measures across the country is deemed necessary for preventive reasons and is aimed at limiting the spread and eradicating the disease," the ministry said in a statement.

PPR was first described in Ivory Coast in 1942 and has since spread across the world. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the disease results in losses of up to $2.1 billion around in the world each year.

Greece is home to the largest number of goats in Europe, Stratakos said. Their milk, used in Greece's trademark feta cheese, is a major economic driver.

Once a case is detected, the entire flock is culled, the affected farm is disinfected and authorities test animals in nearby areas for the disease, in line with protocols set by the European Union.

Greece was continuing the epidemiological analysis of the cases and the route of "possibly suspect imports" to determine the source for the outbreak, the agriculture ministry said.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Edward McAllister and Mark Potter)