Bluetongue testing at Suffolk farms

Tests for bluetongue are being conducted on farm animals and midges in Suffolk after a highland cow was diagnosed as the first ever British case of the disease on Saturday.

On the Hampshire/Sussex border Government vets are assessing a suspect case of foot and mouth in a farm animal discovered last night.

If confirmed, it will be the first case outside Surrey and the seventh in Britain since the outbreaks began at the beginning of last month.

A 3km control zone is in place around premises near the village of Rogate as a precautionary measure, a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

She would not name the farm involved but said its postal address was Hampshire and the field where the suspect animal was grazing was in West Sussex.

The highland cow suffering from bluetongue in Suffolk was put down at Baylham Rare Breeds Farm, in Baylham, near Ipswich, yesterday to limit the potential spread of the midge-borne disease.

She was called Debbie and was a petting favourite with school children.

Tests will show if removing her as a source of infection came too late and bluetongue has already spread among livestock and insects.

If the disease - rampant in northern Europe - proves to be circulating in Suffolk, farmers could face foot and mouth-style movement restrictions.

A Defra spokeswoman said results from tests on other livestock around the Suffolk farm would be available today. She did not know when the tests on midges would be completed or the tests on the animal in West Sussex.

Deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg's said farmers' best hope if bluetongue has established itself was a frosty winter, which would wipe out the midge population.

He said a vaccine for the disease was being developed, hopefully in time for a mass vaccination programme next summer.

The symptoms of bluetongue are similar to foot and mouth, and the strain that infected Debbie - Serotype 8 - was the same as that which afflicted livestock across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Holland this past year.

Government chief vet Debby Reynolds said farmers should remain vigilant, and report any suspect cases of either virus.

Bluetongue, which affects, cattle, goats, sheep and deer, is not spread between animals unlike foot and mouth - only through midge bites.

Humans cannot catch the disease.

Once an outbreak of bluetongue is confirmed, culling animals is not official policy - whereas the opposite is true for foot and mouth.

However, a 20km (12 mile) control zone will be placed around Baylham Rare Breeds Farm if bluetongue appears to have infected other animals and insects.

Professor Peter Mertens, from the Pirbright laboratory where the bluetongue samples are being tested, said tests conducted now on animals could prove negative, but then come back positive in a few days because of the virus' incubation period.

He told BBC News 24 that 95% of cattle showed no clinical symptoms if they were infected, which made detection harder.

The National Farmers Union said its members had feared the arrival of bluetongue from Europe.

A spokesman said an outbreak would not have as dramatic an impact on the industry as foot and mouth, as animals would not need to be slaughtered.

But any new disruption is unwelcome after tens of millions of pounds have been lost coping with the cases of foot and mouth to hit Surrey since the first case in the village of Normandy at the beginning of August.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: "This is obviously unwelcome news at a very difficult time for farmers who are already dealing with the restrictions we have had to put in place to contain foot and mouth disease."

He said the Government had been closely monitoring the spread of bluetongue across northern Europe, and yesterday deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said contingency plans were in place.

MEP Neil Parish, Conservative chairman of the European Parliament agriculture committee, said it had been a "summer of hell" for British farmers.

Richard Storer - who runs the Suffolk farm with his wife Ann and son Neil - said the farm had been through a "traumatic week".

On Monday Debbie was suspected of having foot and mouth, but after she was given the all clear experts diagnosed her with bluetongue.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?