Blue Tongue
September 29th, 2007 | by Narendra |
Blue tooth, and now Blue Tongue. Who coins these words? After Mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE - You’d have to have been on the spaceship to Mars to miss hearing about mad cow disease), UK farmers a facing a fresh crisis. A totally new virus has struck its cows. It is the first case of bluetongue disease.
This disease doesn’t affect humans. It affects ruminants - sheep, cattle, deer and goats. It can cause high mortality rates and reduce milk yield in cattle.
The threat of decreased trade associated with Bluetongue outbreaks has become an even bigger threat to the livestock industry than the actual disease itself.
Although the disease is not a threat to humans the most vulnerable common breeds in the UK are cattle, goats and sheep. There is no efficient treatment. Prevention is effected via quarantine, inoculation with live modified virus vaccine and control of the midge vector, including inspection of aircraft.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!