Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue and Avian Influenza have developed beyond expectations in 2007. The impact on markets has, however, been limited to mostly smaller, temporarily intra-EU disruptions. These disease outbreaks run counter to the Animal Health Strategy 2007-2013. This report consolidates reporting on these animal disease developments in the EU from all EU FAS offices.
2007 has been a bad year for the European animal heath status. While the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) situation has further improved and the fight against Classical Swine Fever (CSF) in the newer EU Member States (NMS) is celebrating success, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Bluetongue (BT) and Avian Influenza (AI) H5N1 have demonstrated the EU’s vulnerability for animal diseases.
Foot and Mouth Disease in the
In the second half of 2007, the
Bluetongue spreads throughout
Until the summer of 2006, BT was a tropical disease that occasionally made inroads into the Mediterranean countries of the EU with only few local consequences. However, in 2006 a BT strain of serotype 8 seemed to have adapted to temperate host mosquitoes and a new BT epidemic started in the east of
The impact of the BT epidemic on EU meat trade is very limited, because meat is not infected by BT. Also, EU exports of susceptible living animals had already considerably decreased as a result of animal welfare constraints. Intra-EU trade has been hampered because of the increase in administrative burden to transport animals within the infected areas. This serotype 8 BT is, however, having an important economic impact because of its relatively important mortality. Mortality in sheep is over 50 percent, while reports of mortality in cattle, especially for weaker animals like calving cows, indicate doubled mortality of vulnerable cattle from normal levels. Together with a decrease in milk productivity, this BT epidemic is held co-responsible for below quota milk production in the most heavily affected MS. Unless an effective vaccine becomes available in early 2008, it can be anticipated that this BT epidemic will further spread and become endemic in a large part of the EU. The economic impact is also expected to increase exponentially, particularly for sheep breeders if the disease were to invade the
Is Avian Influenza here to stay?
After initial outbreaks of AI H5N1 led consumers in southern
The impact of AI H5N1 on European poultry markets in 2007 has been fairly low because most outbreaks occurred in economically insignificant flocks. However, throughout 2007 EU poultry producers have kept production tight in order to avoid overproduction and major problems in case of important AI outbreaks. The production limitation was further mandated by the increased feeding costs and the expectations of increased imports as a result of the newly implemented TRQs, which resulted from the WTO case on poultry tariffs[1]. As a result, EU poultry prices remained at a high level and poultry production remained profitable. The continued threat of AI H5N1, however, hangs like a sword over the sector, which is very aware that no mistakes on biosecurity are allowed.
Other diseases
BSE/TSE
While BSE in cattle herds seems to be under control and incidences of BSE are rapidly decreasing in all EU MS, the appearance of increasing numbers of atypical TSE cases in sheep and goats have drawn the attention of the EC, which has stepped up the control measures for these small ruminants.
Classical Swine Fever
The newly acceded MS in 2004 have made good progress in eradicating CSF, although infected wild boar populations in remote mountainous areas occasionally continue to cause CSF outbreaks in pig farms. The newest MS,
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