Deliberately raising the groundwater level in nature reserves and allowing tightened streams and ditches to remeander may contribute to the spread of the bluetongue virus. This is what the BoerCurgerMovement (BBB) in the Provincial Council (PS) fears.
The bluetongue virus is spread through small mosquitoes (also called midges, ed.) that bite sheep and other ruminants and transfer infected blood. Because these mosquitoes like to live in damp places in nature, wetting nature should be reconsidered, the BBB states in Statenquestions.
“We have been following the news about the bluetongue virus with concern over the past period. It remained relatively quiet in Drenthe, but now here too the first reports of symptoms of bluetongue in sheep and cows have arrived. The bluetongue virus is also on the rise in Drenthe, half of which of sheep die from it,” BBB States members Wenda Bolhuis and Willem Vossebeld write to the Provincial Executive (GS).
The midge benefits from temperatures around twenty degrees and can thrive in Drenthe’s nature reserves, which often consist of boulder clay. “That type of soil retains water and ensures that we are dealing with wet nature areas,” according to the BBB States members.
“In addition, Drenthe’s nature policy is aimed at retaining water and preventing desiccation. This means that the midge can reproduce. The meandering, which creates large swampy areas, also makes it pleasant for the midge to stay here.”
Because there are insufficient vaccines, sheep in particular are victims of the bluetongue virus and there are quite a few sheep in Drenthe, members of Parliament have quite a few questions. For example, they want to know from GS to what extent they agree with the statement that transformation of nature into wet grassland and swamp leads to an increased risk of infections in livestock, due to an increase in the number of mosquitoes.
The party also wants the Provincial Executive to investigate the possible relationship between Drenthe’s nature policy and the welfare of agricultural and hobby animals in our province. Bolhuis and Vossebelt also want to know whether GS is prepared to reconsider nature policy, so that “a balance can be sought between nature conservation and the interests of people and animals in the countryside, and to involve farmers, hobby farmers and citizens.”
BBB believes that the ambition to create more wet nature areas is unrealistic. “Certainly when the negative consequences of this manifest themselves in, among other things, new (animal) diseases and infections, caused by insects that traditionally do not live in Drenthe.”
Finally, Vossebeld and Bolhuis also point to the advance of the tiger mosquito and the West Nile virus. The latter virus occurs in birds and is transmitted by mosquitoes. Unlike the bluetongue virus, the virus can also be transmitted to humans and some mammals such as horses.