Cattle farmers shouldn't assume bluetongue is only a
threat to the sheep sector. If UK beef and dairy farmers adopt that
attitude and fail to vaccinate stock this spring, the cattle sector
could be heading towards an animal health catastrophe, Dutch vet
Karin van Heuven-van Kats warned during a visit to
Lancashire.
"Farmers in the UK haven't seen enough cases of bluetongue in
cattle, compared with our experience of the disease in Holland, to
realise the full extent of the damage this disease can do.
"This is not just a sheep disease and my concern is that UK
cattle farmers don't have a grasp of what a major impact this
disease could have in their herds if they are complacent about
vaccination," Ms van Heuven-van Kats told a meeting of farmers
organised by
Intervet/Schering-Plough
Animal Health in Garstang.
She said there was no doubt one of the bluetongue serotypes
would eventually have a serious effect on cattle in the UK unless
there was a big swing towards vaccination. "There's still a lot we
don't know about bluetongue. But one thing is for certain: It isn't
going away and farmers must protect their stock. When I first saw
cattle with bluetongue I didn't recognise it. It wasn't a disease I
thought they were suffering from. And that's the big danger here.
Farmers may have it in their cattle and not realise it."
In Holland the motivation to vaccinate - 95% of cattle were
vaccinated last year - was driven by farmers actually seeing cows
with bluetongue symptoms.
"Seeing is believing. Farmers saw exactly what this virus could
do during that first year of the bluetongue outbreak and they
didn't want it to happen again. So they vaccinated and I must urge
all cattle farmers in the UK to do the same. You have the
opportunity to avoid the massive problems suffered by Dutch
farmers, who had no means of controlling bluetongue when the virus
was first detected.
"The midges can travel 5-10km a day, and while fingers are
pointed at all sort of sources - such as flower importations and
midges hitching a ride on competition horses travelling across
Europe - we must remember that we now live in a world where travel
between continents is an everyday occurrence for people. But with
that comes a bigger risk of infected midges travelling long
distances even faster."
As well as urging cattle farmers to vaccinate their stock this
spring, she said animals were not totally protected from the
disease until three weeks after their final dose. Farmers had to be
diligent in the way they checked their stock for any physical signs
of the disease such as scabs on the mouth. But dairy cows showing
reduced yields, sore teats, lameness, muscle degeneration and
weight loss may be infected with bluetongue.
"Farmers need to look out for what I term as 'stupid' calves or
'stargazers'. These are calves that show unnatural behaviour such
as an inability to find the milk bucket or to lie down or just to
stare at the sky. These calves can be born to cows that have been
vaccinated, so great care must be taken to monitor the health and
behaviour of all calves," Ms van Heuven-van Kats told the
meeting.
In
her own farm
practice in Deventer, which had vaccinated many thousands of
dairy cows, she said there had been no adverse health effects after
vaccination.
"Where farmers did contact us to say there had been a death the
day after vaccination, the animal was always subjected to rigorous
tests. In every case the cause of death had no link to the
vaccination."