Blue Tongue in Deer

[west_meon]

BBC website has an article this morning about Blue Tongue virus appearing in the UK and spreading with all ruminants, including deer, as susceptible hosts.

Symptoms include : "The disease causes tongue and mucous membrane lesions, problems with swallowing, lameness and stiffness"

The full article is here.

Bluetongue farm virus warning for sheep and cattle as midges blown into UK

Midges blown from northern Europe could spread a serious virus across farms in England, experts warn.

www.bbc.co.uk

Blue tongue is a notifiable disease, and the symptoms read very similar to Foot and Mouth. Are the two clearly/visibly different, and does anyone have an idea how great an impact this could have on deer numbers?

Would carcasses still be able to enter the food chain?

Presumably if found or suspected in a deer the call is made to APHA, but what samples will they want, or do they take the whole carcass?

Thank you for any advice or guidance.

 

[west_meon]

This link to the gov.uk website gives basic details, but not a lot else.

What happens when you report a notifiable disease in your animals

Find out what happens when you report a notifiable animal disease and how to get support.

www.gov.uk

The link also talks about culling infected animals on a site, but if found in wild deer I am unsure if that still applies, and how APHA would go about it?

 

[finnbear270]

Blue Tongue

BASC reporting cases of Blue Tongue in Kent and saying to be mindful when inspecting culled Deer .

www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk

Bluetongue: how to spot and report it

The signs of bluetongue virus and how you must report it in sheep, cattle and other livestock.

www.gov.uk

 

[NullMac]

Would carcasses still be able to enter the food chain?

Are you going to gralloch a beast with Blue Tongue symptoms? Or indeed any of the other notifiable diseases (other than TB obviously) ?

If it looks notifiable for whatever reason I can going to call the Vet before I touch it, never mind gralloching it, thank you very much.

 

[Eddie P]

According to the BDS field guide on deer disease:

Blue Tongue is a Notifiable Disease and if its presence is
suspected the local Animal Health Divisional Office must be
notified without delay. If the hunting area has been declared
an 'Infected Area' or 'At Risk Area'-all the non-edible parts of
uninfected deer must remain on the land holding. To avoid
spreading the disease any carcase showing signs of infection
must be covered-up and remain isolated in location until cleared
by the Animal Health Divisional Office vet.

 

[Cootmeurer]

It’s been endemic in the US whitetail population for years. I’m not sure what purpose the above recommendation for no movement of carcasses ? As I understand it, there is no direct animal to animal transmission, except perhaps maternal transmission to fetus. All other Transmission requires a midge vector and an incubation period.

In my personal experience, we never see the disease except in drought periods. This seems to congregate the deer to water sources with high midge populations. When we do see a BT infected deer there is usually no doubt, they are visibly poor and sickly and often die or are nearly dead near water.

As to entering the food chain, unless the animal was shot soon after infection I think even the most inexperienced stalker would clearly see that something wasn’t right with the deer.