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Posted by Sally on August 30th, 2008 in Farming Issues

Two cases of bluetongue have been confirmed in imported rams on two premises in Souther England, they are the first bluetongue cases in the UK this summer.

The infected rams both come from the same farm in a bluetongue restricted zone in central France and the virus was detected after routine post-movement testing by Defra on all susceptible animals.

However Defra have refused to cull the rams in order to halt the risk of spread by midges.

Paul Roger, vice president of the Sheep Veterinary Society, accused Defra of a ‘serious abdication of responsibility’ continuing “We feel this sends out the wrong message to the farming community. If those sheep are bitten by midges it significantly increases the risk of infection spreading to other livestock in that region and across the whole PZ,” he said.

PZ means protection zone and this August the whole of England was announced as a PZ.

A spokesman for Defra said culling the rams “would not be an effective disease control.”

Is anyone else having feelings of de je vue and thinking of the badger culling debate?

The Defra spokesman went on to say “The nature of bluetongue spread means that the slaughter of affected animals is disproportionate to the likely benefit in controlling what is a vector-borne disease spread by midges,” he said.

“In addition to this, vaccine has been available in both areas since April 30 and sales data suggests uptake in the areas is high.”

This is not a time for Defra’s ’should we shouldn’t we oh let’s wait and see’ policy, for once it is time for Defra to show leadership and get tough in protecting our agricultural livestock in the UK.