Farmers warned: stay vigilant on bluetongue

Even though there have been no recorded cases of bluetongue in the UK and reduced numbers on mainland Europe, Scottish farming leaders yesterday urged livestock producers to continue to be vigilant.

Only by maintaining the voluntary ban on importing stock from bluetongue-infected areas would it be possible to keep the disease out of UK, and increase the chance of eradicating the disease altogether, experts warned.

During the past three years since the virus began to be a major animal health concern, livestock keepers across the EU have been engaged in a rigorous programme of BTV prevention, conducted through a regime of vaccination and careful movement of animals.

Figures just released by the European Commission show there were 66 cases of bluetongue this past summer across six different serotypes of BTV. All of those cases were in the southern Mediterranean countries.

NFU Scotland's vice-president, Nigel Miller, said he wanted to congratulate Scottish livestock keepers for continuing to source stock responsibly and adhering to the voluntary import ban over the high-risk summer period.

"This has been crucial in keeping Scotland disease-free. This, and the 2008 Scottish vacci- nation campaign, plus vaccination throughout much of the EU, have undoubtedly helped to keep the number of cases down, and in Scotland's case, at zero."

Miller described the vast reduction in the number of cases of "BTV-8" in Europe as "little short of miraculous" although he did raise a question mark over the accuracy of the recording.

"Livestock producers are still emphatically advised to stay safe and import animals only when it is safe to do so," he said.