Exotic equine diseases threaten racing and breeding industries
Bluetongue hit the British livestock industry in late September and has spread among cows and sheep in southeast England.
It is closely related to the African horse sickness virus, which is spread by the same species of midge, and which causes 90% mortality in horses.
British vets have also expressed concerns over equine infectious anaemia, better known as swamp fever, largely unknown in the region until 28 cases were diagnosed in Ireland in 2006.
West Nile fever is another threat to British and Irish horse industries, having been found in horses in France and Italy.
The spread of such diseases is likely to be facilitated by climate change, which EU authorities have linked to a potential increase of transmissible infectious diseases.
Meanwhile, monitoring by the World Organisation for Animal Health has revealed a spate of disease outbreaks around the world recently.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza appeared in Britain and Saudi Arabia; rabies was found in Finland, in a dog imported from India; anthrax appeared in Azerbaijan, Rift Valley fever in Sudan; bluetongue in Spain; foot-and-mouth disease in Cyprus; and Newcastle disease in poultry in Romania, Estonia and Greece. Glanders appeared in Iran — this horse disease can infect humans in direct contact with infected animals. It is caused by a bacterium used in biological warfare in World War I.
