‘Be ready’ plea amid new European bluetongue cases

Vets and farmers have been urged to prepare for the prospect of a new bluetongue outbreak in Britain amid reports of “widespread” disease in mainland Europe.

Officials have stressed that there remains no evidence of the virus actively circulating here, while no new infections have been reported in England since March.

But with cases now been recorded close to the Channel coast on the continent, the latest Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)-led webinar on the virus heard a renewed plea for vigilance.

‘Dynamic situation’

Gordon Hickman, Defra’s head of exotic disease policy, said there was a need for awareness about both the clinical signs of the virus and what producers should do if their area is affected by it.

He said: “It’s a very dynamic situation. The risk of it blowing across varies depending on the weather, but it’s pretty clear that disease is widespread in northern Europe, so there is a very clear threat.

“If we leave it undetected, it will spread and we’ll all be worse off.”

Benelux and Germany

The 7 August session was told that the most recent data indicated the Netherlands, which was particularly badly affected by an outbreak of the virus last year, is seeing between 300 and 500 new infections from the BTV-3 strain of the virus per week.

Cases have also been recorded in Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, while the first incident in northern France was confirmed on 30 July.

Separately, cases of the BTV-8 strain have also been detected in southern France and north-eastern Spain.

Medium risk

Although there is no sign of the virus circulating among UK midges, latest assessments have concluded there is a medium risk of BTV-3 being introduced by infected midges blown across from the continent.

The overall risk of an incursion is said to be high, while there is also thought to be a “very high” likelihood of onward transmission in particularly vulnerable areas of southern and eastern England if a new outbreak does occur.

Free bluetongue testing is being offered in five counties – Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent and East Sussex – and Mr Hickman urged farmers in those areas to make use of them.

Three vaccines

Meanwhile, work is also said to be ongoing to assess the effectiveness of three vaccines, which have been developed to fight the virus and are available for use on the continent.

Emergency approval for use of a BTV-3 vaccine was first granted by Dutch authorities in the spring, and rapid deployment on the continent has been seen as the mechanism likely to provide the best chance of minimising the spread of the virus here, too.

Rudolf Reichel, the APHA’s small ruminant expert group lead, reported research from the Netherlands had indicated that while the vaccines do not offer full protection against the virus, they do appear to significantly reduce the severity of any subsequent infection.

While some animals are known to have become ill with the virus or died from it after receiving the vaccines, the session was told that mortality levels among sheep in the Netherlands had been in excess of 75% during the 2023 outbreak.

The next AHDB bluetongue webinar is scheduled for 4 September.