By mid-week last week, the number of confirmed cases of bluetongue disease had risen to 24, up from just 11, four days earlier, officials with the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

A 20 kilometer control zone was imposed in Suffolk around affected farms and outside that, a 150 kilometer protection zone was put in place. Farmers within the 20 kilometer control zone are not permitted to transport livestock out of the area unless for slaughter within the wider protection zone. Livestock owners within the protection zone are allowed to move animals only within its boundaries. The bluetongue control zone last week comprised portions of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in England.

Bluetongue is transmitted by biting midges and the symptoms, which are most severe in sheep, include swelling and hemorrhaging in and around the mouth and nose. The disease is believed to have been transferred by midges which were blown more than 20 miles across the English Channel from Belgium.

Foot-and-mouth

As the bluetongue outbreak continues to grow, restrictions imposed following the outbreak of FMD were scheduled to be lifted on Oct. 4 as long as no cases are detected outside the current protection zone. Three weeks earlier, officials declared the outbreak over, only to discover four additional cases of the disease on the fringes of the control zone, which now includes Heathrow Airport, the busiest passenger airport in the world.

Lifting the ban will allow farmers to transport livestock to market and is expected to help ease the backlog of animals awaiting shipment and bring relief to producers who are facing financial ruin as a result of the disease.

In an effort to help get animals moved in a timely manner, the British Department for Transport has also increased the number of hours truck drivers may work in order to get animals moved to auction or slaughter.

Source: Western Livestock Journal