December 26, 2007

Scotland calls for stricter import controls to avoid bluetongue

The National Farmers Union (NFU) in Scotland has repeated its call to ban animal importation from bluetongue infected areas following the announcement by the British agri-ministry that the disease has been identified in its animals last week.

On Friday, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that 20 cattle near Worcester had tested positive for bluetongue after being imported from a bluetongue hot spot in the Netherlands. This follows a similar case in Middlesbrough a week ago where an animal was found to have bluetongue having originated in a bluetongue infected area in Germany.

In a statement, NFU Vice President Nigel Miller said that he has no faith "in the current controls are either effective or even being properly implemented and controls were not 100 percent effective".

Miller said nobody should be bringing animals out of infected areas in the first place and a complete ban should take place as the disease is too dangerous to give it the slightest opportunity to spread.