Farmers block roads and clash with police in Occitanie over cow culling order

At least one hundred tractors blocked a motorway in south-west France last night as agriculture unions lent their support to farmers required to have their livestock culled, with disruptions still ongoing this morning.

Farmers backed by the Coordination rurale and jeunes agriculteurs blocked the A75 motorway in the Lozère department near Buisson in an organised protest last night. They used tractors to block the road and nearby trees were cut down to make a large bonfire.

Traffic in the area remains heavy this morning.

Alongside the major blockade, disruption on the A9 and several roads around Toulouse were also recorded on Thursday evening and Friday (December 12) morning as other farmers began protests.

Elsewhere, clashes between farmers and police have flared up across Occitanie, with police recorded using tear gas.

Unions say they will continue with the blockades for several days. 

Order to cull hundreds of cows

The protests were sparked after a farmer in Ariège was ordered to kill 200 cows after a breakout of contagious lumpy skin disease (dermatose nodulaire contagieuse). 

Other cases have been recorded in the Hautes-Pyrénées, leading to further demands to slaughter the animals. 

The disease cannot be passed to humans through consumption of products from infected animals, but it can severely impact the health of cattle herds and lead to deformities, lower milk production, and reproductive issues.

The disease has only recently arrived in France, with the first cases recorded in June 2025. Public health body Anses issued a report on the disease following the outbreak.

Previously limited to sub-Saharan Africa, it was first spotted in Europe in the Balkans in 2015. 

Orders to cull herds in the event of an outbreak are legal, although Europe is attempting to vaccinate herds against the disease.

Farmers however say culling is economically unviable without support – as well as emotionally distressing – and farming unions in Occitanie organised rapid action to support the impacted agriculturers. 

This included demonstrations in Rodez (Aveyron), and on Thursday (December 11) farmers descended on Bordes-sur-Arize, the commune where the first outbreak was recorded, in a show of support for the impacted farmers. 

Violent clashes ensued, with farmers placing barricades and police using tear gas.

By the evening, police had cleared the blockades, which were set up to prevent veterinary services from entering the farm to begin euthanising the animals.

Many of the farmers at these earlier protests made their way to the A75 blockade and remain in place. They come not just from Ariège or Lozère but across the south-west. 

Further protests have been scheduled for the coming days in Ariège, Aveyron, and Lozère according to local farming unions.

There are concerns that the protests will spread, with the culling orders a catalyst for wider discontent bubbling up in the sector. 

One farmer protesting at the A75 blockade told media outlet Midi Libre that “the spark has been lit,” and protesters would soon head to Paris. 

This is yet to be officially confirmed by farming unions, however.