September 26, 2007

Bluetongue can endanger Ireland's livestock sector, warns Irish agriculture chief

Ireland's Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said bluetongue disease could have a far greater impact on the country than foot and mouth disease --by effectively shutting down the country's livestock industry.

The virus, when spread throughout Ireland, would severely restrict movement of all animals to slaughter on other farms, and they would have to be kept indoors at dawn and dusk because those were the hours the disease was transmitted, she said.

The minister voiced her concerns as a third animal tested positive in Britain for the disease.

The midge-borne virus was discovered near Lowestoft, Suffolk, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed.

The first two cases were found on a farm near Ipswich.

Coughlan said that though she was "very, very seriously" concerned at the spread of bluetongue from continental Europe to Britain, she is grateful that there was already a ban on animal movements from Britain because of foot and mouth.

Because bluetongue was transferred by midges rather than from animal to animal it was difficult to control and a slaughtering out policy would not work, with a vaccine or very cold weather the only real hopes.

Coughlan says global warming did appear to be a factor in its spread as bluetongue was a sub-Saharan disease that had moved to Spain and become endemic, then north into the rest of Europe.

"I don't want to have a Doomsday scenario in talking about inevitabilities, but people will have to appreciate it's in the realms of possibility no matter what policies we put together, it's very difficult to stop a midge going from one part to another," she said.