EHD advances north along with contamination in Switzerland

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) was diagnosed in a five-month-old calf near Bern, Switzerland. The disease first appeared last year in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The disease was first confirmed in France on September 21.

There the disease spread to a wide area north of the Pyrenees. More than fifty companies have already been affected. The infection is spreading on a livestock farm near Bern in northern Europe. EHD is related to bluetongue, and is also transmitted by midges and many of the symptoms are similar as well. Animals cannot infect each other.

The disease has spread throughout the world for some time. For example, the disease appeared in Turkey in 2012 and in Israel in 2015. Even earlier, the disease was detected in Asia, Australia and Africa. The disease was first discovered in the United States in 1995.

isolating area

In France and Spain, the government does not take any lenient measures. A 150-kilometre buffer zone is created 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 others. Algeria imposed a ban on the import of livestock from France.

There is no vaccine available against the EHD serotype found in Europe. Manufacturers are thinking about making a vaccine. The causative agent of EHD is a tropical virus (RNA virus, ten serotypes) of the family Reoviridae. All the different serotypes cause approximately the same clinical picture. The incubation period of the disease is from two to ten days.