This is Devon --
We all know that the ghastly Schmallenberg Virus that causes birth defects in sheep and cattle was carried to our shores by midges blown over from French and Belgian farms.
But now, when the industry is getting on terms with the plague, Oxford University scientists have been able to fathom some of the nitty gritty about it.
The latest findings, published in the university's Scientific Reports, could help farmers and policymakers understand more about the spread of viruses such as Schmallenberg and plan how best to control them.
Schmallenberg was first seen in Germany in 2011 and spread rapidly across Europe through midges. The researchers showed that Schmallenberg spreads more widely than is revealed by birth defects and is also highly dependent on wind direction.
The research showed the virus was introduced by infected midges from 10 farms in France and Belgium.
"We found most birth defects in sheep were caused by Schmallenberg infections approximately five to six weeks after conception," said Dr Luigi Sedda of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, the lead author of the paper. "The lag time between infection and detection makes it difficult to control the virus, particularly as it spreads so quickly."
A Schmallenberg vaccine was made available earlier this year, but it is not currently clear how many farmers have chosen to vaccinate. There was concern at the time, especially among sheep farmers, that vaccine costs were too high for routine application to be affordable to protect flocks.
To date, more than 8,000 farms across Europe have been affected by the outbreak. Sheep and cattle that were infected last year should have developed immunity to the disease, but it is difficult to predict where these will be.
One of the problems with diseases like Schmallenberg is the lack of a national strategy for reporting or control, said the scientists. It was impossible to get up-to-date infection data with farm-by-farm detail. Farmers were understandably cautious about declaring infections, but better reporting across the country could benefit the whole industry.
It would mean it would be possible, potentially, to predict the probability that a farm had been infected – and hence contained immune animals – allowing farmers to make more informed decisions about whether or not to spend money on vaccinations.
In Germany and the Netherlands Schmallenberg is a notifiable disease, which means that all cases are reported, but in the UK, where the disease is not notifiable, we don't record it or routinely test for it.
Tests in Belgium have shown that the disease is far more widespread than the reported cases, as animals that are not at the critical stage of pregnancy may carry the disease unnoticed.
These missing links in the disease spread add to the difficulty in any attempts to control the disease at a local level. The scale of the spread makes midge eradication impractical, and the lag time in detection makes it difficult to adopt a reactive farm-by-farm approach. Reported by This is 1 hour ago.
We all know that the ghastly Schmallenberg Virus that causes birth defects in sheep and cattle was carried to our shores by midges blown over from French and Belgian farms.
But now, when the industry is getting on terms with the plague, Oxford University scientists have been able to fathom some of the nitty gritty about it.
The latest findings, published in the university's Scientific Reports, could help farmers and policymakers understand more about the spread of viruses such as Schmallenberg and plan how best to control them.
Schmallenberg was first seen in Germany in 2011 and spread rapidly across Europe through midges. The researchers showed that Schmallenberg spreads more widely than is revealed by birth defects and is also highly dependent on wind direction.
The research showed the virus was introduced by infected midges from 10 farms in France and Belgium.
"We found most birth defects in sheep were caused by Schmallenberg infections approximately five to six weeks after conception," said Dr Luigi Sedda of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, the lead author of the paper. "The lag time between infection and detection makes it difficult to control the virus, particularly as it spreads so quickly."
A Schmallenberg vaccine was made available earlier this year, but it is not currently clear how many farmers have chosen to vaccinate. There was concern at the time, especially among sheep farmers, that vaccine costs were too high for routine application to be affordable to protect flocks.
To date, more than 8,000 farms across Europe have been affected by the outbreak. Sheep and cattle that were infected last year should have developed immunity to the disease, but it is difficult to predict where these will be.
One of the problems with diseases like Schmallenberg is the lack of a national strategy for reporting or control, said the scientists. It was impossible to get up-to-date infection data with farm-by-farm detail. Farmers were understandably cautious about declaring infections, but better reporting across the country could benefit the whole industry.
It would mean it would be possible, potentially, to predict the probability that a farm had been infected – and hence contained immune animals – allowing farmers to make more informed decisions about whether or not to spend money on vaccinations.
In Germany and the Netherlands Schmallenberg is a notifiable disease, which means that all cases are reported, but in the UK, where the disease is not notifiable, we don't record it or routinely test for it.
Tests in Belgium have shown that the disease is far more widespread than the reported cases, as animals that are not at the critical stage of pregnancy may carry the disease unnoticed.
These missing links in the disease spread add to the difficulty in any attempts to control the disease at a local level. The scale of the spread makes midge eradication impractical, and the lag time in detection makes it difficult to adopt a reactive farm-by-farm approach. Reported by This is 1 hour ago.