The viral disease epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD) has been diagnosed in a five-month-old calf near Bern, Switzerland. The disease first emerged last year in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The disease was first confirmed in France on September 21.
There the disease has spread in a large area north of the Pyrenees. More than fifty companies have already been infected. The infection on a cattle farm near Bern is much further north in Europe. EHD is related to bluetongue, is also transmitted by midges and many symptoms are also similar. Animals cannot infect each other.
The disease has been circulating worldwide for some time. The disease emerged in Turkey in 2012 and in Israel in 2015. Even earlier, the disease was found in Asia, Australia and Africa. The disease was first discovered in the United States in 1995.
Buffer zone
In France and Spain the government is not taking any lenient measures. A buffer zone of 150 kilometers is established around each infected company. There is a ban on the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and deer in these areas. There are exceptions for slaughter, among other things. Algeria has imposed an import ban on cattle from France.
There is no vaccine available against the EHD serotype found in Europe. Manufacturers are considering making a vaccine. The causative agent of EHD is an orbivirus (RNA virus, ten serotypes) from the family Reoviridae. The different serotypes all cause approximately the same clinical picture. The incubation period of the disease is two to ten days.
2023-10-13 12:36:00
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