Plan of campaign for Bluetongue vaccination
Defra’s plans for how it intends to deliver Bluetongue BTV-8 vaccine to the nation’s anxious livestock farmers has just been revealed. They appear to rely rather a lot on crossed fingers, prayers and “flexibility”. And it now looks likely that the whole of England may well be declared a Bluetongue “Restricted Zone” by this summer.
Firs truism from Defra is that – “Roll-out of vaccine can primarily only be delivered as and when vaccine is available.” The sole UK supplying manufacturer – Intervet – is contracted to provide 22.5 million doses of vaccine (20 million for use in England only, 2.5 million in Wales only), and will release the first doses to the UK in May, subject to final batch testing. The May delivery is hoped to be 3 million doses, with the possibility that 5 million doses may actually be achieved. The vaccine has to pass rigorous control testing before it can be released for on-farm use. Defra says that Intervet will be in a position towards the end of April to provide updates every week on the release of vaccine. The remainder of the doses are expected to be received by Defra in June, July and August.
Depending on yields during the production process, it is possible that more (or less) vaccine could be delivered before these dates. Therefore the plan is “flexible” in order to be prepared to roll-out vaccine earlier or later if that is the case.
Under EU law, vaccination can only be carried out in a Protection Zone, however, roll-out of vaccine will be on a County by County basis. Given the unpredictability of the disease situation, it is possible the current zones may have expanded, or they may even be one single Restricted Zone covering the whole of England by early summer. This therefore offers an unreliable means by which to demarcate vaccine availability now or later in the year. Counties are easily recognisable boundary markers, by which livestock keepers and vets can simply identify when vaccine may be available or sold.
Given the medium/high risk that the disease situation and Restricted Zones may change before vaccine becomes available, it is a risk to define the vaccine roll-out plan for the whole year now purely based on the current disease situation.
Therefore a process for defining a priority list for counties to be vaccinated will be used. The priority list will be regularly reviewed by Defra, Bluetongue Experts and the Core Industry Group in the period leading up to the first vaccine becoming available, and will continue to be reviewed throughout the year. This will be based on epidemiological evidence and veterinary risk at the time of each assessment, broadly using the following criteria to aid the assessment.
Premises, Local Areas or Counties with the highest weight of infection
Taking into account –
premises, local areas or Counties with known circulating disease in 2007
premises, local areas or Counties with known circulating disease in 2008
epidemiological evidence indicating Premises, Local Areas or Counties with highest weights of infection
Counties at the highest risk of receiving infection
Taking into account –
• which zone the County is in i.e. PZ, SZ or Free Area (to assess likelihood of disease risk from animal movements)
• geographical proximity to known infected premises
• meteorological data i.e. likelihood of wind borne incursion of infected midges from infected areas of UK or EU.
• density of cattle and sheep population
Counties in the remainder Restricted Zone (PZ and SZ combined)
Taking into account –
• geographical proximity to known infected premises
• meteorological data i.e. likelihood of wind borne incursion of infected midges from infected areas of UK or EU.
• density of cattle and sheep population
Counties in the remaining areas of England
Taking into account –
• geographical proximity to known infected premises
• meteorological data i.e. likelihood of wind borne incursion of infected midges from infected areas of UK or EU.
• density of cattle and sheep population
Depending on the amount of vaccine available in the first batch, the number of doses will be matched against the sheep and cattle populations (and doses required) of the highest priority counties first, working down a list of counties until no more vaccine is available in that batch. Once further doses of vaccine become available, they will simply go to the next priority county and so forth. Control of the supply of vaccine will be achieved through legislation and licensing.
The intention is for 100% of the vaccine to be purchased and used by each county, however, it is possible this take-up rate will not be achieved and vaccine will be left unused. Therefore, the take-up levels will be regularly reviewed for each county, and pending these assessments any remaining vaccine stocks may be made available to the next priority County or Counties.
Defra says that all livestock keepers wishing to purchase vaccine should speak to their private vet for advice and to place an order.
ends
Posted in EFRC, News and events
