13/06/2011
The Minister of State has announced today that GB (England,
Scotland and Wales) will declare Freedom from BTV8 on Tuesday
July 5th 2011. From this date it will NOT be legal to use
vaccine in UK and animals moving out of GB will be free to
do so without vaccination.
The last case of BTV in GB was in 2008 and we are able to
show 2 years of freedom by surveillance.
It had been hoped that the EU rules would have changed before
now to allow vaccination in the Free Area but this change
is not expected in the close future and the best way to protect
our livestock is by declaring freedom so that ruminants coming
from Restricted Areas have to comply with the rules. This
will make overseas trade simpler for us. Hungary, Denmark,
Sweden, and Austria have declared freedom already and it
is likely that other more northern member states will do
the same as soon as they can show 2 years of freedom (later
this summer for some).
Vaccination has been very successful against BTV so that
the virus has been removed from Northern Europe. Various
strains persist around the Mediterranean and will continue
to do so. BTV may not have gone for good and BTV 8 may not
be the main threat any longer. There is not perceived to
be enough virus circulating in Europe for a windborne incursion
to occur and the risk from imported livestock is low. Imports
to UK will still be checked for BTV on a risk basis.
There are now a considerable number of BTV vaccines on the
market and bivalent ones. Defra will continue to press the
EU to allow vaccination in the free area. When this becomes
legal Defra will advise the industry if the risk level alters
and vaccination against a strain would be wise.
BTV is a Notifiable Disease in the EU and Member States
have to report cases to the EU. There has been a rumour that
France was not reporting cases because the virus was endemic
this is NOT correct.
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