Archived News

27th March 2008

The fields are still too wet for work and need a couple of day’s dry weather before cultivations can continue. So whilst the daily routine cattle work carries on, Dick has been fencing again and David has been cleaning the silt out of a ditch between Coomb Farm and Park Farm which will help drainage from the adjacent fields.

We went to a Bluetongue meeting today at a local veterinary practice along with about 30 other farmers and smallholders.  The meetings are being held throughout the southeast over the next few weeks and cover practical advice on protecting susceptible livestock against Bluetongue Virus 8.  One somewhat alarming piece of news is that BTV1 is now in south west France, so we may have to face more than one bluetongue serotype within a short space of time.

There is no cure for bluetongue, the animal has to overcome the virus and cure itself.  Animals suffering from the symptoms will need nursing through and will hopefully survive, although we are warned that there will be long term affects. In the Netherlands, 30-35% of sheep were infected (1,360,000 sheep) and 6% died and in cattle 10-20% were infected (3,800,000)1% of which died. In 2007 alone, the acute problems cost their industry 81 million euro.

We have been advised that the vaccine should be available to farmers in the PZ by mid May; however the midges which carry and multiply the BTV8 will be increasingly active as temperatures rise during April and beyond. 

The cattle will receive their first dose of vaccine in mid May, if it is ready by then. The second dose will be given 3 weeks later and immunity takes a further three weeks (taking us to about the end of June).

To try to help reduce the numbers of midges around the cattle between now and full BTV8 immunity, we will be giving the cattle a spray of insect repellent along their backs.  The repellent must be applied every three weeks, beginning tomorrow with the cattle at Coast Hill Farm, working through all the stock and then repeating the exercise three weeks later.  This is the only available method at present which might help to prevent the virus taking hold before the herd is fully immune, 3 applications to over 1000 cattle will be time consuming and expensive, but we are hopeful that preventative action now will reduce the number of animals that fall ill to this virus later on.