Another ten new outbreaks of sheep and goat pox have been confirmed in the country since the start of this month alone. The Food and Veterinary Agency insists there is no danger to humans - but for the livestock farmers in the east, the news doesn't sound reassuring in the slightest.

The new outbreaks were detected at farms in Sasa near Makedonska Kamenica, in Sokolarci near Češinovo-Obleševo, in Bigla near Delčevo, in Malino and Kosevica near Sveti Nikole, and in Sopot near Kumanovo. With this, the total number of outbreaks since the first confirmed one at the end of January this year, in the village of Lopate near Kumanovo, has risen to 17, with more than 2,700 animals affected.

Sheep and goat pox is a serious, highly contagious viral disease that can lead to high mortality in flocks. The state's response is depopulation - killing the animals at the affected farms. So far more than 1,400 animals have been culled, and the figure will keep rising as new outbreaks are confirmed.

"No danger to humans" is true, but it is also the easiest sentence to say. For the household that has spent years building a flock and now watches the authorities kill it down to the last head, the danger has already happened - and it is existential. The question rarely asked out loud is how a disease confirmed back in January reached 17 outbreaks across an entire eastern region in half a year.

Depopulation stops the infection from spreading - that is true. But it is also an admission that prevention failed somewhere along the way. The farmers will be counting the lost heads. It remains to be seen whether anyone will answer how, with an outbreak confirmed six months earlier, the disease got this far at all.