- One of the most feared animal diseases in the world -
second only to foot-and-mouth in terms of seriousness - is heading towards
Britain because of global warming, a scientist warned yesterday.
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- When bluetongue virus infects a flock of sheep, it kills
or seriously harms up to 70 per cent of the animals. It was posing a real
risk to Britain's flock of 40 million animals, said Philip Mellor, a virologist
at the Government's Pirbright Laboratory in Guildford, Surrey.
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- Biting midges spread the virus from one sheep to another,
causing blindness, bleeding in the mouth and lameness.
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- Bluetongue normally extends no further than northern
Africa, but over the past decade it had spread into most areas of southern
and central Europe, where it was poised to enter Britain, Dr Mellor said.
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- "It's now been present in Europe for five years,
which is longer than it has ever been present in Europe before," Dr
Mellor told the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Salford
University. He said that it has "expanded more than 800km [500 miles]
further north than it has ever been in Europe" and that the spread
may "reflect a gradual expansion of this risk area, caused by climate
change.
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- "Every previous outbreak in Europe before has been
traced to one [type] of bluetongue virus and now there are five [types]
involved," he said.
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- In southern and central Europethe virus has killed about
500,000 sheep. It is spreading into species of midge that normally live
in Britain.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=441922
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