A 90 per cent plus take up in vaccination against the bluetongue, virus which can prove fatal to livestock has spared the county’s sheep and cattle from infection.
OIne of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has praised farmers in Kent and experts believe the worst is over.
Last year the airborne virus proved a major headache for farmers with quarantine zones established and lack of movement allowed for winter grazing.
But at the start of the summer a vaccination programme was introduced by Government agency DEFRA.
Around 98 per cent of Kent farms which saw in infection took up the offer with the figure for farms as a whole in excess of 90 per cent.
Animal health experts say the farmers’ action prevented an outbreak of the disease - which causes sickness followed by death in its most severe form – comparable to that experienced in continental Europe where herds and flocks were decimated.
Anthony Greenleaves, vet manager of Animal Health which is a branch of DEFRA said while people needed to be vigilant large scale problems had been avoided.
“I terms of cases within the county we get one or two alerts a week and we check these out,” he said. “But in no cases during recent weeks have they proved positive.”
This is the second year the disease has been viewed as a threat to the UK farming industry and experts feared it would be more devastating than 12 months ago as the midges which spread it had already established a foothold in the UK and species had become more accustom to British climatic conditions.
But Mr Greenleaves said: “The second season in Europe – the summer 0f 2007 - was the worst for farmers across the Channel. We are in effect a year behind them as it spread to these shores last year.
“So it was very good to see how our farmers reacted . It has looked good so far and the programme of inoculation looks like it has done the trick.
“We do have a few cases of infected animals coming into the country from eastern Europe so we are maintaining our level of alert.
“Also the vaccination programme will continue next year.
“But it looks like we have been spared the worst we had anticipated and thanks to the farmers the threat is not as great as first feared.”
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POSTED: 08/09/2008 12:15:00