The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: waterhouse on October 15, 2010, 11:27:11 pm
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I've searched on this and there's very little on Blue Tongue in this forum.
Is everyone vaccinating and when should it be done?
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Chack with your vet. We're in Angus and the advice was not to vaccinate this year here.
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were exempt from the blue tongue rules up here.
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Do we have to vaccinate for blue tongue in england?
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My vet vaccinated my sheep for blue tongue (Norfolk / Suffolk border), so I would guess yes for this area. I'd phone up your local vet and ask.
mab
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compulsory vaccination this year on the north west coast of brittany where we have circulating BTV 1 and 8 but next year 2011 no need to vaccinate if we don't feel like it. Hope it doesn't get to the uk................
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It has never been compulsory to vaccinate against BT in England, and was compulsory in Scotland only in the first year. We vaccinated last year as well, as cattle breeders were importing to our part of Scotland from infected areas of the Continent.
I believe there is to be a review of the situation this Autumn, so wait for advice.
The usual time to vaccinate is in the midgie-free period ie the winter. This means for many people that their ewes are in lamb when they have to be vaccinated. Because it was compulsory in the first year here, we had to vaccinate in-lamb ewes, so we did it right in the middle of the 5 months gestation, when the pregnancy is most secure ie mid-Jan. We did the same thing last winter, with no ill-effects. Lambs will have some resistance passed on by their mothers for the first few weeks of life and can then be vaccinated from 1 month onwards.
Blue Tongue is such a horrible disease, causing great distress and frequently death to the animals and often leaving them infertile, with no compensation from the government, that for the sake of a few pounds it is worth vaccinating if there is any threat at all of BT reappearing in Britain.
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it is very cheap - get the vaccination and do it!