Greek feta is getting more expensive because sheep and goats are dying by the hundreds of thousands

Elena Edelweys/Getty Images A deadly outbreak has wiped out entire flocks in Greece and put feta production under pressure.

Greece chose mass culling over vaccination, hoping to protect its vital feta exports.

Now milk is scarcer, prices are climbing, and the damage could reshape feta for years.

Giannis Papastergiou's animal farm is quiet now.

Last year, he found signs of sheep and goat pox among his flock.

Months later, every animal was gone.

"There are people who have one dog and would die for that animal.

Now just imagine having that many animals," Papastergiou told Business Insider in April.

Papastergiou is one of thousands of Greek farmers hit by an outbreak of sheep and goat pox that is threatening the milk supply chain behind one of the country's most valuable foods: feta .

Wherever the highly-contagious disease appears, Greek authorities require farmers to slaughter entire herds — including healthy animals.

A single infected sheep or goat could doom hundreds more.

A sheep farm that had not been infected during our visit in April.

Business Insider To contain the disease, the government also barred sheep from grazing freely outside, forcing farmers to buy commercial feed.

"There are hundreds of thousands of euros' worth of feed stored here without any answer [from the government]," Papastergiou said.