Putlands Veterinary Surgery, Caring for pets, horses and farm animals

Blue Tongue Update

Friday, February 08 2008

I attended a meeting in London on the 6th February 2008 organised by the British Cattle Veterinary Society. There were eleven speakers from various sectors of the livestock industry, including research (Pirbright), NFU, DEFRA, vaccine manufacturers and a veterinary surgeon with much hands-on experience of the disease (in Belgium).

During the morning we heard how the Culicoides species of midge transmitted the virus by biting an infected animal, thereby passing it on to the next bitten animal via its saliva. The midge gets active when the temperatures rise above 10C but the virus does not replicate inside the midge until the environment warms to 15C. The Blue Tongue virus (BTV) is known to over-winter but the exact method is not known. There are 24 types of virus. The prevalent one in the UK at present is serotype 8 (a particularly nasty form).

We were shown some rather horrific slides of sheep and cattle affected by BTV for which there is no treatment, except supportive care with antibiotics and anti- inflammatories. Animals have swollen faces, they salivate a lot and sheep (particularly) often go lame. Occasionally the tongue hangs out of the mouth because of the extensive swelling and may turn it blue.

Vaccination.
We all got very excited during the afternoon sessions because we were led to believe that we would be informed of the latest development. However the acting Chief Veterinary Officer would only give broad guidelines of the vaccination policy.

In summary:-
The vaccine is still under trial and will be released at the end of May this year.

There will be two million doses issued at that time and the voluntary vaccination area will initially be the protection zone (which includes us).

The Government will supply the vaccine to veterinary surgeons (a P.O.M product) we will sell it to our clients who will be encouraged to vaccinate their own animals. We will visit animals to vaccinate on request, but some people may prefer to bring small numbers of sheep to the surgery to be vaccinated.

At present we do not know the exact cost but when it is released we will inform you. Should you wish to pre-order please e-mail us at post@putlandsvets.com

Thank you for your continued support.

Eryl. V. Davies BVSc., MRCVS.

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