New year warning issued over bluetongue threat

Scientists have warned bluetongue infections could continue into the new year as they urged farmers and vets to plan their vaccination programmes this winter.

The plea from The Pirbright Institute has been issued ahead of a new AHDB-hosted webinar this week, which will examine the fertility impacts of the virus.

Latest data issued today (19 October), showed 12 new incidents had been confirmed in Britain, taking the total since the start of July to 3,424.

But Pirbright vector ecology fellow Marion England said the onset of cooler temperatures should not be interpreted as a sign the threat from the virus has passed.

Infected vectors

She said: “You could still get new infections from infected vectors right the way through until potentially the beginning of January.”

The virus is thought to need average daily temperatures of above around 12°C to replicate, though midges infected before then remain capable of transmission as long as they survive.

But Dr England said: “Midges used to disappear around November, but in the past few years they’ve continued through to the end of December or beginning of January so we’re getting a shorter window of reduced disease transmission.”

She also stressed that population levels had remained normal through this year, without signs of an impact from the ongoing drought.

This week’s webinar will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 21 October. Places can be booked via the AHDB website.