Bluetongue in Europe
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Bluetongue (BT) is a potentially devastating midge-borne disease of ruminants that recently spread across Europe from its traditional tropical endemic areas. Historically, bluetongue virus (BTV) made only brief and rare incursions into fringe areas of Europe, with the Afro-Asian biting midge vector - Culicoides imicola being largely responsible for transmission. Since 1998, however, different strains of BTV entered Europe from at least two directions, and spread up to hundreds of kilometres furt her north than previously reported. Interestingly, the northern range limit of the distribution of C. imicola shifted northward, but other Palearctic Culicoides species, not previously described as potential vectors, may also play a major role in the transmission of BT in Europe. This should be specially the case in south-east of Europe, were C. imicola has never been identified. Very recently, outbreaks were recorded in a transboundary area including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France , far more northern latitudes than the previous limits of the disease. These outbreaks are related to a new serotype previously not reported in Europe. BTV spread in Europe has resulted in massive disruption of trade in animals and animal products and caused the deaths of over 1.5 million sheep.