Bluetongue restrictions played down
Thursday, 04 Oct 2007 12:08
Bluetongue spread into Essex last week
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A senior farming industry representative has played down calls to extend the bluetongue control zone following the disease's outbreak in East Anglia.
Peter King, chief livestock advisor on the livestock board at the National Farmers' Union, was responding to demands to increase the control zone area – which covers much of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk – to enable farmers to move their animals more freely across the UK.
Mr King said there were chances that the spread of bluetongue, which is transferred between animals by midges, might become controllable this winter in colder weather.
"Given that we are now approaching what is thought to be the end of the midge life-cycle as we go into the colder spell there may still be the ability to control the spread of bluetongue," he told BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme.
"What we are looking to do is to see if we can address these movements or the need to move these animals without necessarily having to increase the protection zone in the bluetongue area. And the obvious example there would be animals going direct to slaughter."
There were 24 cases of bluetongue confirmed in Britain as of yesterday, a Defra spokesperson said, with a cluster of cases in north Essex last week following the initial outbreak in Suffolk.