Q&A: bluetongue disease

What is bluetongue?

Bluetongue is a disease which affects a number of animals: sheep, cattle, goats, deer and camels. Humans cannot be infected.

The disease is prevalent in Europe, where it has killed 1.8m animals in less than a decade.

Bluetongue originated in Africa, but as temperatures across the world have been rising, it has spread up into Europe.

How is it transmitted?

The disease is carried by midges. Foot and mouth is passed from animal to animal, but the spread of Bluetongue is caused by bites from insects carrying the disease.

Why has Britain had its first case?

Scientists speculate that both global warming and the recent floods mean conditions have been ripe for an outbreak of bluetongue on our shores. Higher temperatures mean more midges can survive, and heavy rainfall in recent months has provided a breeding ground for the insects.

In an interview with the Independent in August, Professor Peter Mertens from the Institute for Animal Health said "we have all the elements for an outbreak... It's a serious worry. The risk has never been higher, we are very nervous about it".

What are the symptoms?

Infected cattle suffer swelling to the tongue and face, giving the tongue a bluish appearance, where the disease gets its name from. Animals become lame and suffer from a high fever. Eventually they start to bleed internally, and die.

What happens to infected cattle?

Infected animals are culled. There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease, which has already had confirmed outbreaks this year in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland and just 100 miles away over the British Channel in France.

What does this mean for Britain's farmers?

It is a testing time for Britain's farming community who are still reeling from the latest foot and mouth outbreaks.

Foot and mouth passes from animal to animal, but because bluetongue is carried by insects, the outbreaks tend to be smaller. However, exclusion zones, as implemented in the foot and mouth crisis, will need to be much larger.

Some scientists predict 150km exclusion zones will be necessary, in comparison to the 10km zones set up to contain foot and mouth.

There is also a chance that cattle will be subjected to dusk and dawn curfews - the time when midges are most likely to bite.

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