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By Sean Poulter

Last updated at 11:59 PM on 27th February 2012

A virus that has killed lambs and cattle does not pose a danger to humans, the Food Standards Agency has said.

Its statement will be welcomed by farmers, many of whom are concerned that consumers may turn their back on British lamb.

It came as the number of farms affected by the Schmallenberg virus, which causes birth defects and miscarriages in livestock, yesterday increased to 83.

Deadly: Farmers fear Schmallenberg disease will spread across the country

The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency said that the virus had been detected in 78 cases in sheep and five in cattle, on farms across southern and eastern England.

The FSA said: 'Based on current evidence, there is unlikely to be any risk to consumers through the food chain from the virus that is causing abnormalities in livestock.

 

'No illness has been reported in humans exposed to animals infected with the Schmallenberg virus.

'Consumers should continue to follow the normal food hygiene precautions when handling, preparing and cooking all foods to reduce the risk of illness from harmful micro-organisms.'

The Schmallenberg virus has spread to cattle sparking fears for livestock

Farmers are seeing limbs of their lambs fused together and joints that don't work

The virus first emerged in the Netherlands and Germany last year, causing mild to moderate symptoms in adult cattle, including reduced milk yield, and stillbirth and birth deformities in sheep, goats and cattle.

The AHVLA said none of the affected farms reported importing animals last year from affected areas in Europe.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control had also reported it was unlikely that the virus, which is thought to be spread by midges, would cause disease in humans.

Malcolm Bennett, professor of veterinary pathology at Liverpool University, added: 'The economic and social effects of the disease for farmers whose animals are infected are still to be seen.

'The main effect in sheep is on unborn lambs, so only now, as we enter the peak period for lambing, are we beginning to see the extent and severity of the disease.'

Alistair Mackintosh of the NFU said: 'For any business to lose 20 per cent of your stock would be a huge blow. For a farmer it is catastrophic. If it was 50 per cent you would be put out of action.

'I know one farmer who says 10 per cent of his 6,000 ewes have become barren, so that is 600 animals producing nothing.'

In Germany and Holland the virus was detected in adult cattle, causing symptoms including reduced milk yield. In Britain the calving season has not yet begun, so the impact on foetuses is not yet clear.

The counties worst affected so far are Norfolk, Suffolk, East Sussex and Kent but the virus has already spread along the south coast to Cornwall and parts of south Wales.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not ruled out direct transmission between animals but said a ban on imports would be pointless as the disease is already here.

In 2007 millions of sheep and goats on British farms were killed as a result of bluetongue virus, which was also brought in by midges.

It has now been eradicated but farmers are concerned that a vaccine for Schmallenberg does not exist  and could take 18 months to two years to develop.

 

Continue reading here:
UK's lambs being wiped out by killer Schmallenberg virus amid fears disease could spread to humans

By Sean Poulter

Last updated at 11:59 PM on 27th February 2012

A virus that has killed lambs and cattle does not pose a danger to humans, the Food Standards Agency has said.

Its statement will be welcomed by farmers, many of whom are concerned that consumers may turn their back on British lamb.

It came as the number of farms affected by the Schmallenberg virus, which causes birth defects and miscarriages in livestock, yesterday increased to 83.

Deadly: Farmers fear Schmallenberg disease will spread across the country

The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency said that the virus had been detected in 78 cases in sheep and five in cattle, on farms across southern and eastern England.

The FSA said: 'Based on current evidence, there is unlikely to be any risk to consumers through the food chain from the virus that is causing abnormalities in livestock.

 

'No illness has been reported in humans exposed to animals infected with the Schmallenberg virus.

'Consumers should continue to follow the normal food hygiene precautions when handling, preparing and cooking all foods to reduce the risk of illness from harmful micro-organisms.'

The Schmallenberg virus has spread to cattle sparking fears for livestock

Farmers are seeing limbs of their lambs fused together and joints that don't work

The virus first emerged in the Netherlands and Germany last year, causing mild to moderate symptoms in adult cattle, including reduced milk yield, and stillbirth and birth deformities in sheep, goats and cattle.

The AHVLA said none of the affected farms reported importing animals last year from affected areas in Europe.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control had also reported it was unlikely that the virus, which is thought to be spread by midges, would cause disease in humans.

Malcolm Bennett, professor of veterinary pathology at Liverpool University, added: 'The economic and social effects of the disease for farmers whose animals are infected are still to be seen.

'The main effect in sheep is on unborn lambs, so only now, as we enter the peak period for lambing, are we beginning to see the extent and severity of the disease.'

Alistair Mackintosh of the NFU said: 'For any business to lose 20 per cent of your stock would be a huge blow. For a farmer it is catastrophic. If it was 50 per cent you would be put out of action.

'I know one farmer who says 10 per cent of his 6,000 ewes have become barren, so that is 600 animals producing nothing.'

In Germany and Holland the virus was detected in adult cattle, causing symptoms including reduced milk yield. In Britain the calving season has not yet begun, so the impact on foetuses is not yet clear.

The counties worst affected so far are Norfolk, Suffolk, East Sussex and Kent but the virus has already spread along the south coast to Cornwall and parts of south Wales.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not ruled out direct transmission between animals but said a ban on imports would be pointless as the disease is already here.

In 2007 millions of sheep and goats on British farms were killed as a result of bluetongue virus, which was also brought in by midges.

It has now been eradicated but farmers are concerned that a vaccine for Schmallenberg does not exist  and could take 18 months to two years to develop.

 

Continued here:
Schmallenberg virus: UK's lambs being wiped out by killer disease

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 3:20 PM on 26th February 2012

Urgent tests are under way to see if a killer virus which is threatening to wipe out lambs in Britain's meadows this spring poses a threat to humans.

Experts think the Schmallenburg Virus has spread into Britain from Europe by infected midges which swarmed across the North Sea last summer and autumn.

At present, a Europe-wide assessment has concluded that it is unlikely to cause illness in people.

Deadly: Farmers fear Schmallenberg disease will spread across the country

However, as it is a new virus, work is on-going to identify whether it could cause any health problems to people. 

Catherine McLaughlin, National Farmers' Union animal health and welfare adviser, said: 'This is still a relatively new virus, it is a developing situation and it's difficult to predict the scale of the problems.

 

'We are continuing to work closely with colleagues at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the UK and EU scientific communities to learn as much as quickly as possible.'

The winter weather has stopped any more midges making the sea crossing, but it is feared that once spring arrives and it gets warmer, the disease will increase its grip on the UK.

Meanwhile in another alarming development, cattle have also been infected, meaning there could be an even bigger impact on meat prices on supermarket shelves.

The Schmallenberg virus has spread to cattle sparking fears for livestock

In sheep flocks it causes birth defects in lambs including deformation of the head, neck and limbs, as well as blindness, and can also cause pregnant ewes to lose their offspring. 

News that British cattle herds are also showing traces of the disease will send shudders through the UK livestock industry.

The disease originated in Germany, where it has been blamed for the deaths of up to a quarter of lambs in almost 150 stricken flocks since it was identified last November.

Farmers are seeing lambs's limbs fused together and joints that don't work

Schmallenburg has yet to been made a notifiable disease, and development of a vaccine may be up to two years away.

It is already being reported on farms in East Anglia and South East England - in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, East Sussex and Hertfordshire.
Cases have also been reported in the West Country.

With the main lambing and calving season about to start, there are fears it will spread across the UK and hit the farming and meat industries.

Other affected countries have also detected the virus in cattle.

AREAS AFFECTED IN UK

Norfolk, East Sussex, Suffolk

Kent, West Sussex, Essex

Hertfordshire, Cornwall

Gloucestershire, Hampshire

Isle of Wight, Surrey, 

West Berkshire, Wiltshire

Ian Johnson, National Farmers' Union spokesman in the South West of England, urged farmers to be extra-vigilant for signs of the disease and take all sensible precautions to prevent infection.

He said: 'Cases on the continent have shown that the virus causes significant health problems for the animals with infection, resulting in still-born or deformed young.

'So any unusual symptoms, or abortions, should be reported to the local vet, or to the animal health office. 

'If farmers are considering importing from the affected parts of continental Europe, we would strongly recommend that they discuss their plans with their vet first to reduce the risk of buying in the virus.'

Schmallenburg is the latest animal disease to spread to England from continental Europe. 

Four years ago Blue Tongue Disease caused havoc among sheep flocks and cattle herds, having spread to Northern Europe from the Mediterranean, carried by midges.

The farming industry itself took over the control campaign in a rolling programme of vaccination, which effectively eliminated it.

There are now confirmed Schmallenberg cases in five EU member states, with Germany worst affected, where 150 sheep farms have produced positive tests.

The Netherlands has identified it on three cattle farms, 84 sheep farms and four goat farms.

Belgium has reported finding virus-positive lambs with congenital deformities on 61 premises in several regions, and also a six-month calf foetus where the herd had reported a slump in milk yields and three cattle subsequently tested positive for the virus.

In France, 'high risk zones' which includes Alsace, Lorraine, Nor Pas de Calais, Picardie, Champagne Ardennes, remain in place and there have been 13 reports of virus identified.

Defra says there are likely to be further cases as the lambing season continues and as calving starts. 

It has been agreed with the World Organisation for Animal Health that its disease reporting requirements will not divulge which farms are affected.

The Health Protection Agency has more information on its website.

 

Read the original here:
Fears that disease imported from Europe threatening to wipe out Britain's lambs could spread to humans

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 3:20 PM on 26th February 2012

Urgent tests are under way to see if a killer virus which is threatening to wipe out lambs in Britain's meadows this spring poses a threat to humans.

Experts think the Schmallenburg Virus has spread into Britain from Europe by infected midges which swarmed across the North Sea last summer and autumn.

At present, a Europe-wide assessment has concluded that it is unlikely to cause illness in people.

Deadly: Farmers fear Schmallenberg disease will spread across the country

However, as it is a new virus, work is on-going to identify whether it could cause any health problems to people. 

Catherine McLaughlin, National Farmers' Union animal health and welfare adviser, said: 'This is still a relatively new virus, it is a developing situation and it's difficult to predict the scale of the problems.

 

'We are continuing to work closely with colleagues at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the UK and EU scientific communities to learn as much as quickly as possible.'

The winter weather has stopped any more midges making the sea crossing, but it is feared that once spring arrives and it gets warmer, the disease will increase its grip on the UK.

Meanwhile in another alarming development, cattle have also been infected, meaning there could be an even bigger impact on meat prices on supermarket shelves.

The Schmallenberg virus has spread to cattle sparking fears for livestock

In sheep flocks it causes birth defects in lambs including deformation of the head, neck and limbs, as well as blindness, and can also cause pregnant ewes to lose their offspring. 

News that British cattle herds are also showing traces of the disease will send shudders through the UK livestock industry.

The disease originated in Germany, where it has been blamed for the deaths of up to a quarter of lambs in almost 150 stricken flocks since it was identified last November.

Farmers are seeing lambs's limbs fused together and joints that don't work

Schmallenburg has yet to been made a notifiable disease, and development of a vaccine may be up to two years away.

It is already being reported on farms in East Anglia and South East England - in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, East Sussex and Hertfordshire.
Cases have also been reported in the West Country.

With the main lambing and calving season about to start, there are fears it will spread across the UK and hit the farming and meat industries.

Other affected countries have also detected the virus in cattle.

AREAS AFFECTED IN UK

Norfolk, East Sussex, Suffolk

Kent, West Sussex, Essex

Hertfordshire, Cornwall

Gloucestershire, Hampshire

Isle of Wight, Surrey, 

West Berkshire, Wiltshire

Ian Johnson, National Farmers' Union spokesman in the South West of England, urged farmers to be extra-vigilant for signs of the disease and take all sensible precautions to prevent infection.

He said: 'Cases on the continent have shown that the virus causes significant health problems for the animals with infection, resulting in still-born or deformed young.

'So any unusual symptoms, or abortions, should be reported to the local vet, or to the animal health office. 

'If farmers are considering importing from the affected parts of continental Europe, we would strongly recommend that they discuss their plans with their vet first to reduce the risk of buying in the virus.'

Schmallenburg is the latest animal disease to spread to England from continental Europe. 

Four years ago Blue Tongue Disease caused havoc among sheep flocks and cattle herds, having spread to Northern Europe from the Mediterranean, carried by midges.

The farming industry itself took over the control campaign in a rolling programme of vaccination, which effectively eliminated it.

There are now confirmed Schmallenberg cases in five EU member states, with Germany worst affected, where 150 sheep farms have produced positive tests.

The Netherlands has identified it on three cattle farms, 84 sheep farms and four goat farms.

Belgium has reported finding virus-positive lambs with congenital deformities on 61 premises in several regions, and also a six-month calf foetus where the herd had reported a slump in milk yields and three cattle subsequently tested positive for the virus.

In France, 'high risk zones' which includes Alsace, Lorraine, Nor Pas de Calais, Picardie, Champagne Ardennes, remain in place and there have been 13 reports of virus identified.

Defra says there are likely to be further cases as the lambing season continues and as calving starts. 

It has been agreed with the World Organisation for Animal Health that its disease reporting requirements will not divulge which farms are affected.

The Health Protection Agency has more information on its website.

 

More:
Virus kills lambs in Britain amid fears disease could spread to humans

A new study suggests H5N1 is more easily spread and far less deadly than scientists believed. What does that mean for work on potentially lethal man-made versions of the virus?

AFP / Getty Images

H5N1 avian influenza spreads easily among chickens and other birds.

This is one thing we thought we knew about the avian influenza virus H5N1: it is extremely deadly. Since the virus first emerged widely in human beings in 2003, there have been 587 cases confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Of them, 346 resulted in death. That’s a fatality rate of 59%, far above the 0.1% death rate for the standard seasonal flu. If H5N1 really kills more than half of eople it infects, it would represent one of the most dangerous health threats on the planet.

This is another thing we thought we knew about H5N1: it rarely infects human beings. Though the virus can spread like wildfire through populations of chickens and other birds, it almost never seems to make the jump to infect human beings — and even then, only when there’s close contact between an infected bird and a person. (Like the Thai cockfighting trainers who became infected after giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to their sick fighting birds.) The virus almost never spreads from person to person.

That makes H5N1 frightening — especially if you’re unlucky enough to contract it — but, ultimately, a limited health threat. Now, what if it it turned out that H5N1 actually infected far more people than we thought, and that nearly all of them became somewhat sick, but ultimately recovered? That would mean H5N1 was much more transmissible than scientists expected, but far less deadly.

That’s the conclusion pushed by a paper published in this week’s Science. Peter Palese — an eminent flu expert at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine — and his colleagues did a meta-analysis of 20 studies that attempted to find evidence of subclinical (meaning without symptoms) infections of H5N1. He estimates that H5N1 infection is far more common than the number of laboratory-confirmed cases would indicate, and that the true fatality rate is much, much lower than 59%. If that’s true, bird flu may not be the great danger it has sometimes seemed to be, and that would make the ongoing debate over whether scientists should continue work on a man-made H5N1 virus simply academic.

MORE: A Bird Flu Death in China — What It Means, and Doesn’t Mean

Many flu researchers have long assumed that there were likely more human H5N1 cases than were being officially confirmed. The WHO counts only cases that involve people who come to the hospital and who can be confirmed through blood studies to have contracted H5N1. In a developed country like the U.S. with an extensive hospital network, doctors might be able to catch most of those infections. But nearly all the human cases of H5N1 have taken place in developing countries like China, Thailand, Indonesia and Egypt, and often in rural areas where doctors and hospitals are in short supply. (To get an idea of the challenges faced by health officials fighting H5N1 in a poor and sprawling country like Indonesia, check out my 2007 TIME Asia story.) There’s every reason to believe that many H5N1 cases might be missed — especially unusually mild ones that wouldn’t drive an infected person to the hospital.

So scientists have tried to conduct seroconversion studies in areas where H5N1 has hit, looking for evidence of antibodies to the virus in people’s bloodstreams. The Science article analyzed data from a number of those studies that involved more than 12,500 subjects, and found data to suggest that 1% to 2% of them showed seroevidence of prior H5N1 infection. Though Palese and his colleagues — who refused to comment for press stories on the study — wouldn’t say what the revised fatality rate for H5N1 would be, their data suggests that the new rate would be less than 1%, which would make it only a little more dangerous than the seasonal flu.

But not everyone agrees with the paper’s conclusions. The WHO has stood by its data, estimating that the fatality rate for H5N1 is likely between 30% and 60%. Other experts criticized the Science study, arguing that it was based on misleading or faulty data that may overestimate the number of people infected by the virus. A recent analysis from Michael Osterholm, head of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), estimates that the fatality rate of H5N1 is at least as high as the WHO has put it. From CIDRAP:

Yi Guan, MD, PhD, a virologist at Hong Kong University, told CIDRAP News in an e-mail that he believes H5N1 seroprevalence rates are likely to be lower than what many studies have reported. He said microneutralization assays can generate a lot of false positives, based on his lab experience comparing the method with classical virus neutralization assay.

Conducting serological surveys using microneutralization assays without doing parallel tests to confirm the findings can produce H5N1 seroconversion rates amplified “many, many times or log,” he wrote.

Guan said he personally has doubts about whether there are any subclinical H5N1 cases, based on his own experience reviewing unpublished data.

The debate over H5N1 is more than just academic, however. The flu world is currently enmeshed in a deep debate over whether research involving a man-made H5N1 virus — one that apparently looks to be most highly transmissible and highly deadly — should be published in scientific journals. Those who oppose publication argue that putting the details of such work in the public realm increases the likelihood that terrorists will try to recreate their own killer flu. There’s also the chance that if work continues on the virus, it might escape from the lab — as happened several times with the SARS virus — triggering a potentially catastrophic pandemic. Those in support of the research, however, argue that such work helps flu experts prepare for a possible pandemic — and they say that the government has no business trying to censor legitimate scientific research.

MORE: Should Journals Describe How Scientists Made a Killer Flu?

Last week scientists and public health officials from the WHO at a highly contested meeting in Geneva agreed to put a temporary halt on any work on the man-made H5N1 flu, while the journals Science and Nature — which have accepted manuscripts on the research — have agreed to hold off publishing studies on the virus for now. But both journals have said that they eventually intend to publish the studies, and many flu researchers including Palese have said that they believe fears of the man-made H5N1 are overblown. And if it turns out that the natural H5N1 virus is actually much less deadly than we thought, the entire controversy could be defused.

That makes the timing of the Science study — published right after the WHO meeting — suspicious to some flu experts, as Sharon Begley wrote for Reuters:

Some scientists said there was little coincidence in the timing of the study’s publication. They noted that Palese published similar findings last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and that it is unusual for Science to publish a paper when key data have appeared elsewhere.

“The editors of Science and Nature are the most powerful people in science,” said an influenza epidemiologist who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “This is the editors of Science saying H5N1?s fatality rate isn’t 50 percent, so we don’t need to worry about a (possible) lab release.”

For its part, Science denies that the controversy played any role in the decision to publish the Palese study. But either way, the debate over H5N1 — the version in nature and the one that was cooked up in the lab — is far from over. And to those who’ve already made up their mind: don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.

MORE: A New Project to Track Animal Diseases Before They Infect Humans

Read the rest here:
Bird Flu: More Common, Less Deadly than We Thought?