- Bluetongue disease, caused by the BTV-3 virus, has appeared in several European countries in the past year and has decimated cattle and sheep populations in the Netherlands.
- The greatest risk of infection is in summer, as the disease is transmitted by insects.
- Great Britain and other countries fear an outbreak of the disease in the coming months.
- The animals were protected by a vaccine that has since been withdrawn. A new vaccine has already been introduced in the Netherlands and work is underway to get it approved in the UK.
What is bluetongue disease?
Bluetongue, which is caused by the BTV-3 virus, appeared in the Netherlands in September 2023. The disease affects sheep and goats as well as cattle, which only pass on the infection to a limited extent. The rapid spread of the disease is facilitated by the method of infection – it does not occur through direct contact, but through blood-sucking insects such as flies and mosquitoes. The infection has led to the death of more than 50,000 animals in the Netherlands, which corresponds to around 5% of the sheep population and 0.2% of the country’s cattle population. The disease has also spread to Belgium, Great Britain and Germany. The highest risk of contracting the disease is between May and October, when the activity of the insects that bite the animals is at its highest. Until now, the only effective way to protect against the disease was an endogenous vaccine, which has unfortunately been withdrawn by the manufacturer.
New vaccine the only hope for farmers
After the winter season, the British authorities fear a return of the disease. Experts are predicting a large number of infections in the summer – even on an epidemic scale. The only hope is the rapid development of a new vaccine against BTV-3, which is being called for by farmers’ organizations. A new vaccine, produced by Syva, has already been fast-tracked in the Netherlands but cannot be used in the UK for the time being. It is vital that vaccine manufacturers and the livestock sector work together to ensure that the vaccine is licensed and available for use as soon as possible to protect livestock in the UK from the predicted disease.
