Outbreaks of "deer disease" among cattle, red alert in Sardinia: stop moving of livestock

The blue tongue among the sheep and the avian flu that killed the birds of Monte Urpinu , in Cagliari, were not enough. In Sardinia, the Ehd virus has been identified, the “epizootic haemorrhagic disease of the Deer”, a disease similar to Blue tongue, which however affects ruminants.

From the Region they let it be known that "the pathogen, which spreads through culicoid insects (midges, ed ) has been identified in some cattle from farms located in Southern Sardinia". In Arbus, to be precise.

The movement stops, inside and outside the borders of Sardinia: the decision of the Ministry of Health will be valid for the next three or four weeks. The validity of the provision is also extended to the movement of sheep and other ruminants.

Also in this case, the discovery by the territorial veterinary services found confirmation beyond the Tyrrhenian Sea: it came from the National Reference Center for Exotic Diseases of Teramo.

In the Region, another crisis unit was convened, after the one for avian. The meeting was attended by the technicians of the Regional Health Department and the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Sardinia, in liaison with the technicians of the Ministry of Health and the Reference Center of Teramo.

This is the first outbreak related to Ehd detected in Europe , according to the Region, but the disease has already been present in North Africa for some time, from which it could have arrived carried by insects transported to the island by the winds of the desert.

“The identification of the virus”, explains the regional health councilor, Mario Nieddu, “once again highlights the capacity of our surveillance and monitoring system on diseases and epidemiological risk. Controls have already started, on animals and insects, to verify the presence of the virus beyond the area of the outbreak ".

The Region announces that "the Ministry of Health, pending a more precise epidemiological framework, which will be possible only after the extension of the checks, has ordered the total closure, for a period between three and four weeks, to the handling of outside the island and within the territory of cattle, a species susceptible to the virus, in which the infection, unlike sheep and other sensitive species, can lead to the most serious clinical forms. Stop also the movement of sheep and other ruminants that can still be the EHD reservoir, for which, at the moment, there is no vaccine ".

A decision, the one taken by Rome, which will be formalized in the next few hours by the Region's technicians. Permitted, by way of derogation, only the handling for slaughter within the regional territory.

"Undoubtedly the situation is made delicate by the presence of a virus about which little is known", explains Nieddu, "The first step will be to verify the spread of the infection. This, as proposed by the ministry technicians themselves, will give us information on times and methods of possible reopening to movements ".