The bluetongue virus is spreading like wildfire. While the first infections were reported at Drenthe livestock farms at the beginning of October, the viral disease has now spread like wildfire across the province. Sheep farmers, but also owners of cattle and goats, view the advance of bluetongue with suspicion. How should they proceed?
In any case, one thing is clear. “It’s five to twelve,” is the alarming message from Bernd Hietberg and Lambert Pijl.
The former is a veterinarian at Het Drentse Hart Veterinary Practice in Beilen. With its sheep farm in Hijken, Pijl is one of the largest in Drenthe. At the table during the Radio Drenthe programme Cassata he sounds the alarm. “If we do nothing and the virus comes back next year, I predict that fifty, or perhaps sixty percent of the sheep will disappear from Drenthe.”
As an 11 year old kid he started within the sheep farmers’ guild. Now, at the age of 62, despair never seems closer. “When you come to your country… it’s difficult,” he sobs.
Veterinarian Hietberg agrees: “It’s going very, very fast. In Drenthe it has been going well for about ten to fifteen days now. Meanwhile, the collection service is hardly picking it up anymore,” he sees animals succumbing en masse. “And every day, companies with infections are added.”
The culprits are tiny mosquitoes called ‘midges’. They transmit the virus and create a real battlefield. At least 2,500 livestock farms in the Netherlands have already been affected. Symptoms in sick animals include high fever, swelling, stiffness and, over time, a blue tongue.