The bluetongue virus remains a plague, especially for sheep farmers, even after the first cold week of autumn. Last week, the watchdog NVWA identified more than five hundred new (possible) sources of infection; there are now more than 2,300.
The midges that spread the disease among ruminants die after a few nights of frost, but it hasn’t been that cold yet — and it won’t be anytime soon. According to Weeronline, temperatures until next Tuesday will be at or above the normal values of 13 to 14 degrees, rather than below. It also happens at night in De Bilt not colder for a while than 7 degrees.
Sheep, cows and camels
And so for the time being the gadflies are making their move: now there is certainly bluetongue in more than 1,500 places in the Netherlands. These numbers have been confirmed with a blood test in a laboratory. Symptoms of the disease have been found in more than eight hundred places: blisters on the tongue, which causes ruminants (in addition to sheep, also cows and camels) to eat much less or not at all, and ultimately die.
A week ago there were still 1,100 infections and 600 suspicions. By the way, not only livestock farmers are affected, but also petting zoos and urban herds.
In the meantime, everything possible is being done to slow the spread of the virus: from traps to catch the gadflies to the House of Representatives, which wants outgoing Agriculture Minister Adema to investigate whether the wetting of nature has not made it too easy for the midges.
Last week, Friesland was the largest new bluetongue hotspot: the number of infections and suspicions rose from 138 to 330. North Holland has by far the most infections, and another hundred were added, to 584. Overijssel stands out with a doubling of the number of cases, from sixty to 120.
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