Schmallenberg virus to return in 2013
The Schmallenberg virus is moving faster across the UK than bluetongue disease did in the outbreak of 2007, DEFRA chief vet Nigel Gibbens has warned.
Mr Gibbens told Farmers Weekly: “We could see a similar number of farms hit by Schmallenberg in 2013 as we did during lambing and calving this year.”
Throughout the summer and autumn DEFRA and the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratory Agency have carried out surveillance for the disease, which causes deformations in newborn calves and lambs.
Cattle that were infected during the summer showed that the disease had overwintered and was still circulating.
“Surveillance has revealed that Schmallenberg is a fast-moving disease capable of infecting a lot of stock. It is using the midge vector more effectively than bluetongue 8,” Mr Gibbens said.
“Surveillance has revealed that Schmallenberg is a fast-moving disease capable of infecting a lot of stock. It is using the midge vector more effectively than bluetongue 8.”
DEFRA chief vet Nigel Gibbens
The disease has now reached almost every rural county in England and has spread quickly into Wales and Ireland.
The coming breeding season will see the effects of the disease showing up again at lambing, but there is some uncertainty on how severely and exactly where it will appear, he said.
“The south and east of England will be hit in areas which have not yet developed an immunity.
“But the main impact areas, as the virus moves up through the country in a wave-effect, are most likely to be the Midlands, Wales and Ireland,” Mr Gibbens said.
He said that models predicted that the disease would reappear as though it was “sporadic”.
“That’s because the infection window is such that it causes most significant damage on farms where peak midge activity coincides with pregnancy.
“For these farms there will be high levels of losses,” he said.
“Other farms may become infected before pregnancy and develop immunity so no disease occurs. Then there is a middle group where some of the herd or flock are infected, resulting in a low level of infection at about 2%,” Mr Gibbens said.
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