Ruminant Health & Welfare have provided the latest BTV update (20th May). They advise that farmers and the industry must remain Aware, apply Caution and use evidence-based Tactics to ACT and mitigate against the latest strain BTV-3.
A single bite from a single infected midge will reliably transmit BTV-3.
This means that trying to control midges is futile and is not going to impact on the risk of BTV-3 transmission.
The working technical group for BTV are recommending that farmers are aware of the facts and avoid misinformation to prevent unnecessary actions and costs.
The latest situation is that the UK is out of the seasonal low vector period. This is because biting midge activity has increased with the warmer Spring weather. There will be a possible increase of bluetongue virus over the coming months as the weather warms and the risk of infected biting midges blowing over from northern Europe increases.
In the UK, bluetongue, including BTV-3, is a notifiable disease, so anyone suspecting the disease must take action and report it to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
Further information about how to ACT on BTV-3 and the latest updates:
Bluetongue Virus – Ruminant Health & Welfare (ruminanthw.org.uk)