NI Farmers To Remain Vigilant Over Bluetongue

Farmers across the province have been urged to remain vigilant for symptoms of the Bluetongue disease today.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) issued the warning in response to the detection of the animal disease in one cow on Saturday, on a premises near Ipswich, Suffolk in England.

Bluetongue is an insect-borne viral disease, which affects cattle, goats, deer and sheep.

It does not pose any risk to human health and is spread only by infected biting midges.

However, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said the confirmed case in the East of England is a worry for the local farming industry in Northern Ireland.

Kenneth Sharkey, President of the UFU, said: “This disease, which is carried by midges, has spread relentlessly across Northern Europe in the past few years. News that an incident has emerged in England will heighten concerns in the local industry that the disease may eventually appear on the island of Ireland.

“The disease has only been confirmed in a single animal and this will not be treated as a confirmed outbreak unless evidence emerges that the disease is circulating. We will be co-operating fully with DARD and DEFRA to do whatever is possible to minimise this threat.”

Mr Sharkey said the two major implications of the disease are that it causes mortality, particularly in infected sheep flocks, but also in cattle; and an outbreak locally would mean the introduction of control zones, potentially leading to export restrictions on live animals from Northern Ireland.

(LC/SP)