Sadly the Bluetongue rumour is correct. Here is the latest from DEFRA

Laboratory tests have detected the presence of Bluetongue in one cow on a premises near Ipswich, Suffolk. Bluetongue is a very different infection to Foot and Mouth Disease and the strategy to control it is therefore also different. This is not a confirmed outbreak unless further investigation demonstrates that disease is circulating.

Bluetongue is a disease of animals. It does not affect humans. This is a disease of ruminants, including sheep, cattle, deer, camelids and goats. It is transmitted by the movement of midges or by movements of infected animals if they are subsequently bitten by midges.

The premises where Bluetongue has been found is under restrictions. The one infected animal will be culled and epidemiological investigations are being carried out to assess the situation.

This is the first time Bluetongue virus has been recorded in the UK.

Defra has been working in close partnership with the industry to develop the Bluetongue Control Strategy and has jointly been involved in raising awareness of this disease.

The Health Protection Agency advise that people who have visited the affected premises do not need to be concerned that there is any risk to their health.

Further information

See www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/index.htm

For those wanting to know on more on Bluetonge click here

Here's the control strategy. Sounds like slaughter is not automatic but if confirmed there will be restricted zones of 20-100km.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/pdf/bluetongue-control-strategy0807.pdf

Are there no treatments for the symptoms? If it's midge borne should we not be looking at spraying possible breeding sites? 

 What the whole of Scotland for instance?

More info on Bluetongue on www.warmwell.com

Joyce 

TAC.

A 'quick scout around' my old vet books (and the web) quotes some horrific mortality figures.

Essentially BTV is similar to 'haemorrhagic fever' type virusus and to malaria; Symptoms include high temperature, eruptions on tongue, lips, and alimentary canal causing dehydration, wasting and death. Some strains have up to 90 per cent mortality . Northern Europe is experiencing 30 per cent in sheep with this strain (BTV-8) and cannot keep up with carcass disposal. BTV-8 is not so virulent in cattle.

And it just what we did not need.

Last August the chief vetinary officer claimed the UK had been safe from blue tongue because midges would be unlikely to fly across the English Channel from Europe. I think midges could easily be blown from Scotland by the wind to East Anglia. 

Midges have been known to fly 200kms.

Impossible in the UK to wipe out their breeding sites, there are too many areas of wetland.

If there are a number of cases as occurred in Europe then it is essential that some method is put in place to dispose of the carcasses.

Remember there is no compensation for this unless your animals are in Phase 1 control. The costs of disposing of carcasses would be the final straw that breaks the camels back.

Is there no product that can be applied to stop the midges biting the sheep? It seems there is a broad range of ectoparasite products, are none of them suitable?

Some extra information on Bluetongue from my perspective following a recent meeting to look at the scenarios. Many questions are covered in this. 

I attended this seminar organised by Defra at Writtle college as an NFU representative.

The numbers of people attending were greatly reduced due to the outbreak of FMD, the majority of attendees were from Trading Standards, Police, Army, Vets and Defra staff. I appeared to be the only farmer!

The major part of the presentation was given by Philip Mellor of IAH at Pirbright, an expert in Arbovirology. He gave background details into the disease as well as an update on the present situation in Europe and the factors that are most likely to cause it to arrive in the UK.

I will give a precis of the main points:-

There are 24 serotypes of the virus. The virus causes a breakdown of blood vessels, it effects the Red blood cells. Many animals die of secondary infections normally respiratory, treatment by antibiotics is not very effective.  Viraemia in sheep lasts for a max. of 54 days and in cattle up to a 100, although normally 60.

All ruminants are susceptible, especially sheep and possibly deer, cattle tend to be the reservoir for the disease. (Some sheep are resistant most notably Dorpers, probably due to their origin in North Africa and the Middle East.It is not known whether any UK breeds will be resistant.)

BT in cattle is very difficult to diagnose and very few show any symptoms, in the USA  less than 0.1%, in Europe it is slightly higher at 0.2 – 0.4%

The serotype in Europe is BTV8, this did not occur anywhere else in Europe and in fact the last and nearest outbreak was 1982 in W.Africa.

All BT’s are spread by Midges and until the latest outbreak it was thought that only one species mainly spread the disease. (Culicoides Imicola) This midge has a very specific geographical range of between 40 degrees North and South.

However it is now realised that nearly all midges can spread the disease (there are over1400 named species. They are nearly everywhere in the world, but significantly as far as sheep are concerned New Zealand does not have any.

Some species are active all the year round and normally live for around 10 days depending on the temperature.

They will breed in any damp area and even in dung pats. However when the temperature is less than 15 C. the disease will not replicate.

Temperature drives the virus and global warming / climate change is increasing the range. Since 1998 there have been 11 incursions of BT into Europe and in the previous 40 years there were only 2.

At least 1.5 million sheep have been killed by the virus since 1998 in Europe.

In the present outbreak in N.Europe officially at last week some 5,526 holdings are recorded as outbreaks, although realistically the figure is likely to be more than double this. Sheep mortality is high at around 30% and cattle is unusually high at around 5% (these figures could be conservative!) All of Holland, Belgium and now most of Germany are infected areas. To enable animals to be traded it was soon decided that it was easier to make the control areas as large as practical.

At present there are no Vaccines for BTV8. Most BT vaccines are made in S.Africa for sheep.

Live vaccines could be made almost immediately but these are extremely dangerous to use and it is extremely unlikely that the EU would allow the use of them.

If given the go ahead now, then Merial could produce an inactivated for BTV8 by spring 2008.

Sheep would require an annual shot and if given pre lambing would potentially give some cover to lambs. Cattle would need 2 shots a year. The vaccine would cost approx. 35p. per shot and would be ongoing for at least 3 years maybe longer to get rid of the disease

Other possible controls are not very practical:-

It would be difficult to destroy vector breeding sites in Europe.

Possibly housing stock reduces infection rates, but not very practical with extensive sheep enterprises.

Not really a viable chemical option. Sprays of OP or SP would not last long enough as many sheep are often bitten on the face when they are grazing.

Ivermectin injections may possibly help but only very short term.

Temperature, wind speed and direction are the catalyst for the spread of the disease.

The Midges can in theory fly up to 100 miles and wind blown infection has been known at up to 200 kms in the Mediterranean.

Last year in N.Europe there were only a handful of outbreaks by the end of September, however by the time the disease appeared to halt in February 2007 there had been more than 2,500 outbreaks.

The Met. Office has a computer model that measures the risks of the disease arriving here. Fortunately this year up to now we have not reached the highest risk level from wind direction and temperature combined.

However this may not always be the way that the disease can arrive. There are two theories about how BT started in N.Europe. At the end of July there was a horse fair in Aachen where horses had come from far and wide and the midges could have travelled in a Horse Box. Or a theory by Philip Mellor is that the midge arrived in flowers air freighted from West Africa, the last known active area of BTV8.

If it does arrive then the methods of control will depend on a number of factors. However Phase 1 will be slaughter and attempt to control. This will be very dependent on time of the year when it arrives (the later in the year the better chance of stopping it when the temperature is below 15.C.)

If a number of cases were found over a large geographical area then Phase 2 would come in and that would be to live with it and hope a vaccine becomes available.

BT in cattle is very difficult to diagnose and with few large animal vets used on farms it may be a while before it is identified. Speed would be essential if any control is to be attempted.

Unexplained deaths in sheep are common and vets virtually never see sheep these days. (As a vet said until 50 have died they may not get called in!) This could be aggravated with the FMD restrictions and the present very low or nil value of animals.) It is essential to get over the message that identifying the disease and reporting it immediately is essential. (It would possibly help if any suspected animals would be taken away for free.)

If it does arrive and I fear we would have to accept Phase 2 quite quickly then one of the greatest problems as they have discovered in Europe is disposing of the carcases. With no compensation farmers will not pay to have these dead animals taken away and many will not even report the deaths. FOR MANY IT WOULD BE THE END OF FARMING. Veterinary treatment needs to be ongoing and the costs would be unsustainable.

The French government have already given 2 million euros to the farmers affected to help.

Thanks for that Frank, as I suspected it will be a total disaster for livestock farming in the south east and possibly further afield.

Sky news are reporting the case being on a "petting farm" and showing pictures of a Rare Breeds Farm sign on the same signpost as a sign for Mill Lane - a quick Google search suggests the cow was found at Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm. Mill Lane, Baylham, Ipswich.

 Obviously this isn't confirmed, but it certainly look's likely with all the information Sky are putting out. Most worrying though was the Sky reporter saying he was amazed farmers had no experience of Bluetongue, obviously the fact that this is the first ever case of this disease in the UK is lost on the mass media!!

 I'll update with more information as I have,

 Jonathan Long, Livestock Editor, FW

What a year - avian flu, F&M and now this.

This can't be that far from Jimmy's Farm can it? Expect to see Mr Doherty wheeled out on News 24 at some point today...

Interestingly while I was out and about on Friday afternoon, I turned on Radio 4 part way through Costing the Earth.  The programme was talking about WHO recommendations on using insecticides inside aircraft coming from areas where there are exotic diseases carried by insects before the doors are opened at their destinations to kill mosquitoes and other possible vectors.  Although the WHO is only concerned with human disease, the risk is the same for animal health. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/costingtheearth.shtml

The programme said that although many countries had adopted the WHO proposals, the UK hasn't.

With Blue Tongue the risk is exactly the same with vehicles and trains coming from or through infected areas on the continent.  Surely we should immediately insist that all vehicles, trains, cargo containers arriving in the UK are treated this way.

Is it relevant that the first UK case is at a tourist attraction fairly close to a ferry terminal?

Also having read all that's available including Frank the Wool's excellent contribution, it seems the only sensible step is vaccination.  Why should there be any hesitation?  With the problems in Holland, Belgium, Germany and France why hasn't vaccine production been a top priority for our EU masters?

I think DEFRA is preparing a statement on Bluetongue because all avenues into the department are shut down at the moment. It may not necessarily be  more bad news to come; it  may be  a simple clarification. I will let you know as soon as I hear more.

 Jon Riley News Ed

The farm where the Bluetongue virus has been found is a small rare breeds farm

DEFRA is still preparing a statement which I've been told will be released in the next two hours or so.

In between times this is the latest:

• Testing of susceptible animals (not the pigs) at the Suffolk farm is continuing
• No further animals have tested positive
• It is still not classed as an outbreak  

Jacobus, I'm sure were it possible vaccinations may be top of the list for tackling this strain of Bluetongue, but as far as I understand it, and David Catlowe of BVA has confirmed this, there is no vaccine effective against the strain circulating in northern Europe,

 Jonathan Long, Livestock Editor

The map shown by Defra of European blue tongue is indicative of the problem being caused by an adverse environmental condition. The map shows a clustering of cases and this can sometimes be seen with human sickness, especially where loss of immunity to infection is involved.

 
Here's the lunchtime update from DEFRA. There's nothing much we didn't know. I've added a link to a document on a control strategy for Bluetongue at the bottom of this post.

Jon Riley

Bluetongue strain identified as BTV8

The strain of Bluetongue virus detected in one cow near Ipswich, Suffolk has been identified as Serotype 8. This is the strain found in Belgium, France Germany, Luxembourg and Netherlands since August 2006.

This is not a confirmed outbreak unless further investigation demonstrates that disease is circulating, and this could take days or weeks to assess. The premises where Bluetongue was detected remains under restrictions, and epidemiological investigations are being carried out to assess the situation.

Debby Reynolds, Chief Veterinary Officer, said:

“It remains vitally important that farmers maintain vigilance for this disease and report any suspect cases, particularly as clinical signs may be similar to Foot and Mouth disease.

“I would like to thank the owner, Animal Health and the Institute of Animal Health for their rapid response in helping to detect Bluetongue in this single animal.”

Notes to editors

See www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/index.htm for further information on this disease.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/pdf/bluetongue-control-strategy0807.pdf

In March our local SEERAD offfice held an evening meeting on the topic of Bluetongue. Some of the thing they said Farmers could do to help themselves were to use a Pour On to try and discourage the midges or try housing earlier. Whilst it seems like not a lot, should we all be rushing out to use Pour ons on stock?

Jonathan:

re vaccine - no there isn't one available now but according to frank the wool's report of the Blue Tongue Seminar given by Phillip Mellor of IAH:

"If given the go ahead now, then Merial could produce an inactivated (vaccine) for BTV8 by spring 2008."

I wondered why we would want to delay, I'm sure there would be a ready market for the vaccine in the UK.  What I can't understand is why the Germans, Dutch and Belgians haven't already gone down this route  - or is it another like FMD where dead stock is better than vaccinated stock in the eyes of our EU masters?

The national reference laboratory for bluetongue virology is:         wait for it       yea that's right     Institute for animal health Pirbright Laboratory.  So thats OK then isn't it. What else has come out of that damned place.

Jacobus, good question, I'm not sure why the Europeans haven't gone down this route if it is possible. With no animal to animal transmission one would have thought vaccination would have made sense.

 Hopefully, we can bring you the answer to this and other Bluetongue questions during the next few days,

 Jonathan Long, Livestock Editor

I was told that it is not a quick job to make an inactivated (attenuated is the correct term I think) vaccine and the amount required has to be built up in a factory process. We are talking about millions of doses here!!

There is an instant live vaccine but it is very dangerous and will more likely kill sheep than save them!! (Might be a good thing I suppose!)

I wonder if that bunch of clowns at pirbright have tinkered with the bluetonuge virus in the same way they tinkered with this strain of FMD so it lives int water for 50 days, but don`t worry sounds like the chief vet and defra have all the answers !!! why does this stupid woman keep saying  in bullitins for farmers to check cows twice aday, what about pigs, sheep, goats ?, could be the civil servants who write her script have not told her the other fmd susceptable animals ?

when will these people wake up and tighten our boarder controls ?

Answer---when its to F***ing late !!