Assess your flock's risk ahead of BTV8 vaccine arrival in July

摘要

A decade ago bluetongue was one of those diseases with a strange name that was only found in the tropical areas of the world.Occasionally midges infected with the bluetongue virus (BTV) would be blown from North Africa into the Mediterranean countries, but in 2006 bluetongue disease emerged in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France and, the year after, infected midges were blown across the channel to East Anglia.There are currently 26 different serotypes and the bluetongue strain that appeared in Northern Europe (BTV8) had never been seen outside Africa before. While BTV can affect all cloven hoofed livestock, BTV8 caused severe clinical disease in sheep and some Belgian flocks saw 25% losses in 2006. BTV does not cause disease in humans.