8 Feb 2024
A senior VMD leader said the agency will need to be ”ready” to respond to pharmaceutical developments as the number of animals infected in the present outbreak rose to 85.
Allister Webb
Job Title
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UK medicine regulators have said they will approach pharmaceutical firms to explore their plans for a potential vaccine to tackle the current bluetongue outbreak.
More than 80 animals – mostly cattle – are now known to have been infected with the BTV-3 strain of the virus in eastern and southern England.
But amid expectations that case levels may not peak for several months yet, the VMD has warned that work on that and other ongoing disease outbreaks may need to be prioritised.
VMD deputy chief executive Gavin Hall highlighted bluetongue and avian influenza as potential priority issues when he addressed the NOAH conference in Westminster on 1 February.
He said the body would be “reaching out” to companies to understand their bluetongue plans and cautioned against the submission of applications for other products in what he described as a “business as usual” way.
He added: “We will need to be ready. We can only assess what is put before us.”
As of yesterday (7 February), 86 BTV-3 cases had been confirmed across 48 separate premises in eastern and southern England since the present outbreak began in November.
Although most cases have been recorded in Kent and Norfolk, the latter’s temporary control zone was recently extended into neighbouring Suffolk following the discovery of an infection on the counties’ border. All but five of the affected animals so far have been cattle.
Currently, infected animals are not being culled, but restricted to their existing locations with further disease mitigation measures being put in place, because of seasonally low midge activity levels.
Speaking at the latest in a series of Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board-hosted webinars on the situation last night (7 February), Defra’s head of exotic disease policy Gordon Hickman said officials were “comfortable” that animals currently under restrictions after testing positive would not pose a wider risk when midge activity levels increase in either March or April.
