THE Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) hosted a bluetongue update webinar this week.

Experts from Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland discussed the latest updates regarding the virus both in the UK and abroad.

Confirmed speakers for the webinar included Leah Shanks from AHDB and Gordon Hickman from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A vet from the Netherlands was also set to attend, and AHDB.

Other speakers represented some of the leading industry, government and specialist veterinary organisations.

The webinar which took place on Wednesday provided attendees with an update on the current situation in the UK and a summary of the situation in the Netherlands.

The event forms part of a series of webinars that AHDB is running to share timely and accurate updates on the current bluetongue situation to help farmers understand what the latest updates mean for the UK.

Those who were unable to attend can still register and will be sent a recording of the webinar.

With recent warming weather, and average daily temperatures being consistently above 12°C, bluetongue virus (BTV) transmission is now possible in high-risk counties.

Due to the proximity to the areas of northern Europe, which are known to have been affected by BTV-3, the high-risk counties are Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent and East Sussex.

Research fellow at the Pirbright Institute, Chris Sanders explains the reason why the temperature increase has a significant bearing on the threat that the new strain of bluetongue, BTV-3, poses to livestock in the UK.

“While there are currently no live cases of BTV-3 in the UK, and no evidence that there is circulating bluetongue virus, with the warmer temperatures we’ve recently seen, we know that the activity of biting midges that spread the virus has increased.

“The development of BTV in midges also depends on the temperature. It is now warm enough that if a midge were to come into contact with BTV-3, local virus transmission between midges and ruminants in the UK would now be possible,” Sanders added.