Having now seen the safe delivery of the first dozen or so lambs and a couple of calves, it is with some relief that I can say that we have not seen any symptoms whatsoever of the dreaded Schmallenberg virus which has received quite a lot of press coverage in the last few weeks.
This particularly distressing condition can easily remain undetected until your pregnant cow or ewe tries to give birth to either stillborn or badly deformed offspring. With cows, very often the case is that a natural birth will not even be possible and an emergency field caesarean will be necessary.
So good news; and with only three report cases in Cornwall so far it looks as though the vast majority of farms will be able to work through until a vaccine is produced.
Now I do try not to sound like the stereotypical whinging farmer, pleading hardship as I swan around in my 4X4, but we had a similar scenario with a disease call Bluetongue a couple of years ago. This was also a new (to the UK) epidemic and I dutifully vaccinated all of my animals (twice – as is required for the first year) at considerable time and expense, only to find that the next year the vaccine was withdrawn as our risk diminished. However, the problem hasn’t disappeared, and the right weather conditions this summer could tempt the infected midges back over the channel so that I can start the whole sorry process again.
And if two midge-born terrors aren’t enough, there are more in the wings waiting for our warming planet to give them the favourable access and conditions needed to invade our green and pleasant land. Akabane & Shamonda are not a hot new line of designer fashion ware – but a couple more viruses who may hit the headlines in the very near future.
Further evidence of the influence of globalisation on us lowly peasants is the news that farmers in Egypt are currently struggling with an outbreak of Foot & Mouth (yes, remember that one!). One of the unintended consequences of the Arab Spring was the collapse of the state’s grip on animal health issues, and the sheer quantity and congestion of cows in the Nile Delta area means that control is going to prove difficult (if not impossible) for the fledgling democracy.
