Schmallenberg spread a warning to Europe, scientists say
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Farmers are waiting nervously in Britain, where the virus has been detected as far as the English Midlands.
“It’s the disease frontier that’s going to be the problem,” said British National Farmers’ Union (NFU) vice president Adam Quinney, a sheep and cattle farmer in the Midlands whose own livestock have not been infected, but whose neighbors’ have.
“It’s like Russian roulette - you don’t know who it’s going to hit and how much it’s going to hit you.”
How has it spread?
It is thought that it has been spread by insects such as midges and mosquitoes, which carry the virus and infect livestock when they bite. The species of insects that is responsible for transmitting the virus has yet to be identified and it is unclear if the virus can be spread from animal to animal.
Experts believe it is most likely that it was brought to the UK by infected midges that were blown across the sea from the Continent, probably during the autumn months, when cases were first being noted there. As it does not seem to affect adult sheep, but rather their offspring, the effects are being noted only now, in the lambing season. Infected midges blown across the sea were also blamed for introducing the Bluetongue virus to the UK in 2007.
However, it cannot be discounted that the Schmallenberg virus could have been introduced by imported livestock.
The direct impact on EU livestock producers has so far been limited, but pig producers have faced significant indirect costs due a ban on EU livestock imports to Russia - the bloc’s biggest export market - despite the fact that Schmallenberg does not affect pigs.
The Commission’s Laddomada said that while direct losses from the virus had not yet been quantified, they were likely to be between several hundred thousand and “a few million” euros.
Are there any treatments available?
There is currently no treatment or vaccine available for this disease. It is a newly identified virus and researchers are attempting to learn more about it, how it is spread, and how it may be treated.
It could take at least 18 months before a vaccine is available, and even then authorities may be reluctant to use it, as it can then make monitoring the spread of the disease difficult. Infected adult cattle have been found to recover rapidly after infection. Animals born with abnormalities usually need to be put down.
“The main thing for all the affected farmers I’ve spoken to is not actually the financial implications, it has been the welfare and stress implications for their stock and for themselves,” the NFU’s Quinney said.
“Lambing 70 ewes with deformed lambs, taking an hour with each one to lamb them carefully, when you’re already stressed because it’s a busy time of year is quite an emotional thing.”