Scottish State Veterinary Service makes
depressing comments regarding its policy on
vaccination against Bluetongue Disease
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie, Perthshire
Filed 20 Jan 08
©www.land-care.org.uk


Dr Mike Lamont, Senior Veterinary Adviser to the Scottish Government and
deputy to the Chief Veterinary Officer in Scotland (Charles Milne),
addressed a joint open meeting of the National Sheep Association and the
Scottish Beef Cattle Association at the Huntingtower Hotel, Perth on the
evening of the 16th January 2008. Although the title of the meeting was
"What next?", the dominant topic for discussion amongst the 75 or so
delegates was Bluetongue Disease and how to prevent it getting into
Scotland.

I was far from the only delegate to be profoundly depressed by what Dr
Lamont said, whilst the majority had reservations. Dr Lamont stated that the
view within Pentland House, where the relevant part of the Scottish
Executive abides, is that (to quote):

"Bluetongue vaccination is unlikely to be needed this year in Scotland"

"There is a problem ordering vaccine now because the shelf-life is less than
12 months and the cost of some £5million pounds could be wasted"

"Scotland would have to be declared a Protected Zone (PZ) before vaccination
could take place on account of EC rules"

These revealing statements need to be analyzed in turn.
"Bluetongue vaccination is unlikely to be needed this year in Scotland"

Dr Lamont claimed that this assertion was based on what happened in
Continental Europe in 2006 and 2007, where Bluetongue Disease caused low
mortality in its first year but spread rapidly in the summer of the second
year. Bluetongue is now rampant in many parts of Continental Europe with
devastating effects on its livestock industry. It would appear that the
thinking of Dr Lamont and his colleagues at the State Veterinary Service
(SVS) at Pentland House is extraordinarily complacent, and bound up with
illogical EC regulations which they appear to be prepared to slavishly
follow.

The fundamental principle underlying any vaccination programme - whether it
be for animal or human disease - is that, when there is a significant risk
of a disease spreading to a community, then it is far better to vaccine
BEFORE the disease gets there, rather than waiting until it arrives before
starting a vaccination programme.

Scotland is certainly at risk of getting Bluetongue Disease in 2008. Even Dr
Lamont admitted that

"the disease is likely to arrive in Scotland in late summer 2008"

But Dr Lamont seemed content and reassured that, since the disease is only
likely to cause low mortality we can safely wait till next year before
bothering about vaccination. This shows an incredible lack of basic
understanding of disease control using the most powerful weapon available,
namely vaccination. Frankly, if an adviser on human health had stated such
an approach towards the risk of arrival of a disease that affected humans he
would be out of office by public demand within hours. It may take a bit
longer in Dr Lamont's case, should things not go quite as he so confidently
predicts.

I fear that the SVS may have been unduly influenced in their approach by the
epidemiological modellers. Remember how they got things so very wrong in
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) UK2001? They were using data that was
fundamentally unreliable. In the case of Bluetongue the assumption that the
disease is likely to behave in the same way as it did in the Continent in
2006 and 2007 is more than a little questionable. After all, Bluetongue has
made some pretty big jumps geographically in recent years which, as i
understand it, no epidemiological model reliably predicted.

Scientific commonsense would surely dictate that vaccination against
Bluetongue Disease should start NOW in Scotland, commencing at the border
with England and working northwards as rapidly as possible until the whole
country is covered on the basis of a compulsory policy.
"There is a problem ordering vaccine now because the shelf-life is less than
12 months and the cost of some £5million pounds could be wasted"

What an extraordinary statement! Is the SVS interested in animal health and
welfare? So it is a waste of money to vaccinate in advance of a disease
getting a foothold, is it? May be Dr Lamont will be proved correct that the
morality from Bluetongue later this year may be low, but he did mention in
passing that the infected animal's fertility may be affected. May be the
situation is akin to that in humans when, once a virus has got into a
community, enhanced virulence may develop. That is all the more reason why
vaccination should have been planned to happen now - or at least as soon as
possible - rather than lackadaisically waiting - with fingers crossed -
until next year. Well planned disease control should not depend on crossed
fingers.

Intervet, one of the main global vaccine manufacturers and the one who got
the contract from Defra for 22.3million doses of BT v8 vaccine for use in
England within its PZ zone, is reportedly much further on with the
development of a BT v8 vaccine than previously anticipated. The logistics of
mass production are allegedly to be worked out by March 2008, with the
fulfillment of orders starting May 2008. Five million pounds worth of doses
(or whatever is needed) for Scotland should have been in that queue. That
could have made a big contribution to the control of the disease entering
Scotland. The doses would have been used as soon so they were available, and
they would not have been "wasted". They would only have been wasted if the
EC had continued to decree that they could not be used in a Bluetongue-free
zone. But the trouble with the EC is that it does not appear to be able to
make rational decisions in a timely manner on account of its size and
apparent lack of expert scientific advice that is independent of politics.

Ironically, on the same day as the meeting in Perth where Dr Lamont made his
depressing description of SVS policy, the EC was having a meeting to review
its policy on the management of Bluetongue Disease. Charles Milne,
Scotland's Chief Government Vet, was at the Brussels meeting. I can only
hope that he was not saying the same things at Brussels as his deputy was
saying at Perth, but I fear he would be.
"Scotland would have to be declared a Protected Zone (PZ) before vaccination
could take place on account of EC rules"

This is at the heart of the problem. It is a nonsensical rule. How can the
EC hope to prevent the spread of Bluetongue if it bans the use of
vaccination in areas at risk but which as yet do not have the disease?

What I would like to hear is the Scottish SVS, shouting from the rooftops so
that everyone can hear, that this rule must be urgently changed. But I have
not even heard a whimper from Pentland House on the matter, busy as usual
with gold-plating EC Directives of every kind that relate to farming in
Scotland and dispensing punitive penalties to any transgressor.

The EC has recently confirmed that they are willing to pay for the
Bluetongue vaccine provided that at least 80% of the cattle and sheep are
vaccinated, presumably in their stated attempt to control - and eventually
eradicate - the disease from the EU and beyond. But, of course, their
laudable policy is undermined by their own irrational rules as to how the
vaccine may be used.
Why is it that the Bluetongue vaccine that has been ordered is not a DIVA
vaccine?

A DIVA vaccine is one that carries a marker that enables a vaccinated animal
to be distinguished from an animal that has developed antibodies in response
to an infection. Many modern vaccines are of the DIVA type, but apparently
not the BT v8 vaccine that is being produced by Intervet. I do not recall
ever being informed as to why this is so. Is it not possible with this
particular virus, or was it not asked for, or does it take too long to
develop, or is it too expensive?

A DIVA vaccine to appropriate subtypes of Bluetongue would be an invaluable
tool, together with a locally available rapid RT-PCR facility to detect
vireamia. Not only is there currently a massive distrust in the competence
of Defra, but if Scotland had its own laboratory facilities the results of
tests (which, with modern technology, do not require high grade biosecurity
facilities) would be available in hours instead of too many days.

The science exists whereby Scotland could be protected from Bluetongue, but
it does not look as though the authorities have the will to apply it.

Instead, Defra draws lines on maps, demarcating arbitrary definitions of
what is a Protected Zone and what is a Surveillance Zone, as required by the
EC. It applies a Vector Free Period as recommended by the EC, whereby
livestock can move out of a Protected Zone in the belief that midges are not
active during this period, which started on 20th December 2007.

However, as Dr Lamont admitted in his recent presentation at Perth, our
current knowledge of how different species of midge behave in relation to
the transmission of Bluetongue virus is very limited. He described how
Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities are undertaking a £700,000 research
project with the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright. This includes the
use of 40 traps throughout Scotland. What this indicates, however, is a
lamentable lack of current knowledge about midges in Scotland and yet the
risk of Bluetongue virus reaching Scotland has been known since 2006.
Nevertheless, Dr Lamont and his colleagues at Pentland House, Edinburgh feel
confident that keeping their fingers crossed will do the trick: they are
apparently prepared to sit on their hands (with fingers crossed, of course)
that Scottish midges will not be active in temperatures below 15degC and
will be killed off in frost, although there is increasing evidence that some
types of midge on the Continent do not obey this rule and survive quite
nicely, and may even be active, at much lower temperatures than previously
thought.

Pre and post movement testing of animals for either Bluetongue or FMD,
supposedly according to EC rules, has resulted in some conspicuous failures.
In the case of cattle imported from Germany this was put down to the Germans
not getting their act properly co-ordinated between different States or
Regions. But this was not the case in relation to the recurrence of FDM
UK2007 after movement restrictions had been lifted following the leak of FMD
virus from the ill-maintained biosecurity of Defra's own premises at
Pirbright.

Encouragingly, most of the delegates at the Perth meeting appeared to have
reservations over Dr Lamont's largely unjustified reassurances over the
likelihood, and the consequences, of Bluetongue hitting Scotland later this
year. Perhaps the mood of his audience was best summed up two comments, made
by farmers at the meeting, addressed to Dr Lamont.

"Is 2009 not too late? The alarm bells should be ringing much louder than
they are",

said Bruce Lang, Starr, Cupar, Fife

"We are waltzing into a disaster here. Surely we need a vaccine available
for 2008. It is wishful thinking that Bluetongue will not be here soon",

said Ben Jack, Wester Upper Urquhart, Gateside, West Fife.

The meeting never got round to discussing whether vaccination against
Bluetongue should be voluntary or compulsory. So lackadaisical was the
approach to the subject that the impression gained was that the authorities
would only begin to think about that once a case of Bluetongue had occurred
in Scotland.

One really wonders if some of the basic lessons, repeatedly documented with
clarity in the many Inquiries that followed the UK Foot-and-Mouth Disease
epidemic in 2001, have ever been learned.
©www.land-care.org.uk