By Jonathan Owen
Scientists warned last night that Britain is on the verge of a major new farmyard catastrophe with a disease called bluetongue that has ravaged mainland Europe and is poised to arrive in this country for the first time.
They said that the deadly virus - which is spread by midges that have been able to expand further northwards thanks to climate change - originated in Africa and has killed 1.8 million animals since it first appeared in Europe in 1998.
Sheep are worst hit by the disease, with other livestock such as goats and cattle tending to act as carriers rather than becoming ill. With the virus now in easy reach of Britain, it is only a matter of time before we can expect to get the warm weather and easterly winds that could provide a perfect route for midges to arrive and infect livestock.
Britain is at real risk from the disease, according to Professor Peter Mertens, head of arbovirus research at the Government’s Institute for Animal Health (IAH) in Pirbright, Surrey. “We have all the elements for an outbreak. It’s a serious worry. All it needs is the match to light the fire. The arrival of the virus, in terms of a single infected midge, all it takes is a breeze in the right direction or an imported animal that is infected,” he warns.
“The risk has never been higher than it is right now. The real horror story is if we get both of these things [bluetongue and foot and mouth] at the same time.”
The spread of the sheep-killing bluetongue virus to countries bordering the English Channel continued last week, as it emerged that further outbreaks had been reported in the Netherlands.
IAH scientists have already been testing thousands of samples from both domestic and imported animals for signs of bluetongue. The National Farmers’ Union is warning that an outbreak here could prove devastating for farmers already struggling to deal with the fallout from foot and mouth. Special daily briefings are being given by the Meteorological Office to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in an attempt to predict where and when weather conditions may allow the virus to arrive.
Bluetongue, which is harmless to humans, gets its name from the way that tongues of infected sheep can turn blue as a result of pressure from grotesque swelling around the head and neck, with infected animals suffering high fevers and inflamed lips, ears and eyelids. The most virulent strains of the virus can kill up to 70 per cent of infected sheep within two weeks. The BTV8 strain that has spread through northern Europe in the past year can kill a quarter of infected animals.
This news comes just as farmers were beginning to hope that they had survived the worst of the foot and mouth crisis, with confirmation yesterday that tests on animals at a farm outside the 10km exclusion zone in Normandy, Surrey, had proved negative. With no confirmed outbreaks since last Monday, the chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, is cautiously optimistic. “The laboratory test results have been negative from the farm in the temporary control zone,” she said, “and so I am very pleased that that can be lifted now. But this is a time for relentless vigilance.”
Amid the concerns over bluetongue, biosecurity is in the spotlight as never before, following last week’s revelations that the most likely source of the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey was the nearby Pirbright laboratory site, used by vaccine manufacturer Merial and the IAH.
An inquiry by Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College London is to focus on biosecurity issues surrounding the laboratories. Although Defra is to merge its Veterinary Laboratory Agency in Weybridge with the IAH to create a [pound]12m laboratory complex in Pirbright, it will not be ready until 2011 at the earliest, leaving Britain vulnerable should there be further outbreaks of animal disease.
And with bluetongue possibly just weeks away from hitting Britain’s countryside, scientists are becoming increasingly concerned that the foot and mouth problems of the past two weeks could be swiftly forgotten as the country struggles to deal with a new disease that could wreak havoc on sheep that have no acquired immunity and are particularly at risk.
full report pages 16-17
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