Blue Tongue Disease Hits Britain and US

England this weekend awoke to a barrage of news that a devastating virus spread by gnats or "midges" had lept the channel from Europe and landed on a cow on a farm in Suffolk. This is the UK's first outbreak. Since August 2006, the virus has been found in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and northern France. In America, far less widely reported is evidence that the disease has also arrived among the soaring white tail deer population in the Midwest and is moving East.

The Glascow Daily Times of Kentucky reports that the disease has spread eastward across Kentucky and has been reported in Tennessee, Indiana, West Virgina and Pennsylvania. In a disturbing development, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the deer virus has spread to cattle in two Pike County cattle farms. According to Farm and Ranch Guide , North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialists are warning producers to protect their sheep and cattle against Blue Tongue.

Another outbreak in Montana has resulted in a quarantine of sheep and is said to be the first time the disease has been reported in that state. Hunters and farmers are both told to be on the alert. The rapid northern spread of Blue Tongue is the latest disease linked by some scientists to global warming. Its full name is Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, and like the dreaded Ebola Virus, it is a "hemorrhagic" disease. Animals contract the disease by being bitten by small infected "midges." It is these midges which last year lept across the Mediterranean from Northern Africa, formerly their most northernmost terrain.

Blue tongue is often fatal and causes severe suffering in affected animals. It sometimes causes a swelling of the tongue and lips that can make them appear blue, which gives the disease its name. Incubation period lasts from 5-20 days. There is no indication that it can affect humans or pets, and the spread of the virus subsides with the onset of frost and cold weather.

Also Read:
BBC NEWS: First UK case of Blue Tongue Virus Zanesville (OH) TimesRecorder
Glascow (KY) Daily Times: Hemorrhagic disease seen in area deer population
Cleveland Plain Dealer

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