What is bluetongue disease?

I’ve been kind of aware that there is another dreadful livestock disease called blue tongue or all-in-one-word bluetongue, mainly from reading the foot and mouth discussions and news. But it wasn’t until a confirmed case of bluetongue disease in the UK on the 22nd September that I sought to find out exactly what it is, how it spreads and the nature of the threat. It turns out that the spread of bluetongue to the UK has been pretty much expected, but the actual arrival of two positively diagnosed cases is another terrible blow to farmers already reeling from restrictions imposed for the ongoing foot-and-moth outbreak and the summer floods which destroyed vast areas of arable crops.

The first place to research is warmwell, the quaintly designed but timely and authoritative site by Mary Critchley. The authors must feel like Cassandra, explaining exactly what needs to be done and then watching disaster unfold as their advice goes unnoticed by those in authority. Perhaps this will begin to change as the EU begins to recommend vaccination as the method to control and eradicate foot and mouth disease. There is even a letter published in the Times Online by DR COLIN G. FINK which explains

There is a lack of understanding within the vet labs’ scientists of the mechanisms of clinical containment of viral disease.

It may be helpful to the Prime Minister’s Cobra group to read Mary Critchley’s voluntary website www.warmwell.com, to which a number of us contribute.

Warmwell is against the government policy of culling, instead advocating the use of ring vaccination as the best means to contain foot an mouth disease, and because culling does nothing to prevent the spread of bluetongue which is not contagious between cattle.

Second cow in Suffolk

Why on earth has it been culled, we wonder. On whose advice and on what grounds? ..this slaughter is not going to stop the disease. It does not spread from cow to cow and hoping that killing a Highland cow will stop other midges feeding on it and getting infected is absurd. There must be thousands of midges in the area and the fact that bluetongue has only just been noticed means the infected midges have been with us for a fortnight or more. Removing these unfortunate animals is not going to stop the problem.

Well my opinion is that removing the two cattle is not going to help spread the disease either, and since they are either going to die a lingering death or else be rendered unproductive then why take any risk at all by keeping them alive?

Bluetongue (Blue Tongue or BT) is an infectious but noncontagious, disease caused by a virus whioch is transmitted by midges feeding on the blood of infected animals. The main animals affected are sheep, goats, cattle and deer. Humans and pigs are not affected by blue tongue

Once infected, the outcome can be completely inapparent in many cases, but can also be fatal. In agriculture, Bluetongue Virus (BTV) more often infects cattle than sheep, but the symptoms in sheep are more severe. It is thought that this particular strain in Europe has had mortality rates of 30 per cent in sheep and 10 per cent in cattle. Milk yield in dairy cattle can also drop to 40 per cent and there is evidence that some animals which contracted the virus in northern Europe in the summer of 2006 have suffered impaired fertility.

Epidemiology

Bluetongue is thought to have originated in Southern Africa, where it is currently persistent infecting antelope, and other game animals. It has also been observed in Australia, the USA, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and more recently Europe. In Europe it BT has become aregular seasonal occurance in the warmer affected Mediterranean countries, but it subsides if temperatures drop. That’s because midges cannot live below 15 degrees centigrade.

Then from around October 1998 whether because of climate change or adapatation, the disease began to spread northward. In August 2006, cases of bluetongue were found in the Netherlands, then Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg resulting in millions of deaths.

Why is the disease called bluetongue?

The name, as you would probably expect, comes from one of the unfortunate symptoms which include swelling of the head and the neck, lameness, internal bleeding, and ulcers of the mouth, nose and eyes. In mild cases the symtoms can go unnoticed but in some the tongue may turn blue under pressure caused by swelling. That’s where the obvious name comes from.

best method of control

The best way to fight the blue tongue virus, farming experts say, is by vaccination, since slaughtering infected animals does not make sense while midges are responsible for transmitting bluetongue.

Now that the EU Commission is sanctioning vaccination, the UK government vet Debby Reynolds must begin to take notice.

“We consider that vaccination is an important instrument to fight this disease. It isn’t mandatory but we would look favourably on any (EU-27) member state request to apply vaccination,” an EU Commission official said. (reuters)

But the problem for UK farmers is that the particular strain of the virus that has occurred in the northern EU, and has been confirmed as the cause of the two cases so far in the UK is one called “serotype 8” and for this there is no vaccine yet available. However two companies are now developing a vaccine for serotype 8 and this is likely to be available in early 2008. The best hope in the meanwhile is for an early winter cold snap to kill off the midges which transmit bluetongue disease.