Schmallenberg Virus found in UK cattle
The Schmallenberg Virus (SBV) has been identified in cattle in UK territory for the first time after the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) confirmed the presence of the virus in cattle from a West Sussex farm. The disease is known to affect many ruminants, but all previous infections in cattle were in Belgium, Holland and Germany. Additional tests on this positive sample are in progress.
Previously, all confirmed cases in UK territory have been in sheep. AHVLA also announced a dramatic increase in the number of confirmed cases in UK sheep. The current count of confirmed cases has jumped from 11 last week to a total of 29. The 29 cases are in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Hertfordshire, indicating that the number of counties affected by the virus has also expanded to include West Sussex and Hertfordshire. The above counties are all in areas that were always believed to be at risk in light of the hypothesis that the disease was spread by infected midges being blown across the North Sea and English Channel by prevailing winds last summer.
Surveillance for the infection has been escalated across the UK and the number of samples submitted to AHVLA for confirmation continues to increase. However, many vets have warned that the number of confirmed cases does not reflect the true extent of the outbreak and that, due to the mild nature of immediate symptoms and the more severe but later stillbirths and congenital defects, it will only be possible to gauge the scale of the outbreak at lambing or calving.
AHVLA have confirmed that they believe this development is ‘in line with our current understanding of SBV’ but have warned that the risk the virus poses ‘might increase as new information becomes available about the extent of infection in Europe’. Once again, AHVLA have stressed that current thinking does not consider SBV to be dangerous to humans and that there have been no reports of zoonotic infections. Nevertheless, investigations are in progress on a precautionary basis. “As this is a new virus, work is ongoing to identify whether it could cause any health problems in humans,” it said.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
