Western Daily Press (Saturday)
New viruses just waiting to destroy livelihoods
Diseases affecting Northern Europe will soon be blown across the North Sea, says farmer
THERE was recently one case of Bluetongue in the South East – now there are nine more cases on nearby farms. The ‘Serotype 3’ identified in these outbreaks is unfortunately the one strain with no protective vaccine. This disease is spread from bites from infected midges which have been blown across the English Channel and the fear is that the midges will overwinter and cause a further outbreak next spring. It’s a notifiable disease and animals infected have to be humanely destroyed.
Bluetongue is an unpleasant and painful disease, affecting cattle and sheep, causing sore mouths and nostrils, red skin or erosion – which may show up on the teats – lameness and abortion. The virus was detected in the Netherlands at the beginning of September and has since spread rapidly. Climate change is being blamed for the northern spread of the disease.
As summers get warmer, with winters wet and milder, it means that pests like mosquitos and midges are not killed off by frost and cold and survive to expand their range. There are many diseases already affecting northern Europe waiting in the wings to be blown across the North Sea or hide away in consignments travelling through the Channel Tunnel. Our island advantage is fast being eroded.
New diseases can be zoonotic (travelling from animal to human), like the tapeworm (Echinococcus Multilocularis) which is carried by infected beavers and is fatal to beavers, dogs and man. The tapeworm is endemic in Bavaria and it could have been brought into the UK by previous irresponsible beaver introductions and also dogs on holiday that were allowed to travel to Europe and back without the quarantine that was previously in place.
Introducing a new species with its own parasites and disease can have a very adverse ecological effect on our native species and sometimes on the human population too. Alarmingly there are currently 2,211 known zoonotic diseases.
As far as we know, Covid was one of these zoonotic diseases. Covid whizzed round the world in a twinkling of time, causing many deaths, much heartache and economic reversals, and it hasn’t gone away. We are just learning that we have to live with it, like many other viruses. But what new viruses are lurking around the corner?
Peter James’ latest novel Stop Them Dead deals with a case of rabies in an English child, bitten by a puppy that has been smuggled into the UK. The RSPCA shares his concern for the criminal puppy trade, where puppies are brought illegally here, without going through customs,
and generally without any protective vaccinations, which is a very effective way of bringing in new disease into the UK, and one disease, as Peter James illustrates, could even be rabies.
Rabies is a horrible and fatal disease, affecting the central nervous system and causing horrific suffering in the affected person who may crave water but cannot bear the sight of it. In the final stages of the disease the affected animal or human is desperate to bite another, as the rabies wants to pass on the infection through saliva to survive and replicate. This disease was finally wiped out in Britain in 1902, though there have been 26 cases in the UK since 1946, all in imported animals.
Since Covid, puppies have been fetching extremely high prices, and many people would prefer to buy a pedigree animal rather than a deserving rescue dog from an animal charity. It’s a lucrative business, particularly as the penalties for this illegal trade are very low, compared to the long imprisonment awaiting those who get caught trading in hard drugs. This has made it very attractive to criminals.
Puppies may change hands in car parks and even when they are advertised with a home address, this may turn out to be a house temporarily rented for the transaction. Unvaccinated puppies are host to a whole range of diseases and what appears to be a healthy animal with a false vaccination certificate can soon succumb to diseases like distemper and the highly contagious parvovirus. Both can be fatal or leave a puppy seriously compromised for the rest of its often-short life, and veterinary treatment is extremely expensive.
A puppy for Christmas can turn into tragedy. It’s essential to look for a known breeder, and see where the puppy has come from, and to at least see its mother and ensure that it is genuinely the puppy’s dam. Vaccination certificates also need to be checked to see that they are genuine. Not all suspect puppies come in from Europe; puppy farming is also alive and well in Wales and particularly Ireland, where there are estimated to be 100 puppy farms. Dogs of breeding age are constantly put in pup, often living in horrendous conditions, as evidenced in Peter James’ latest novel.
It’s not a given that a pedigree animal will necessarily make the best pet. Many breeds have been overbred leading to systemic problems like breathing difficulties in dogs with short noses like pugs and hip problems in labradors. A cross-bred dog can be healthier with less problems and be just as affectionate. Animal charities are packed out with dogs which their owners found no longer fitted with their lives after Covid. My first dog, Patience, was a rescue dog and cross bred, probably collie cross labrador with a bit of terrier. I couldn’t have had a more loving and intelligent dog. She was my constant companion for 14 years and was irreplaceable.
A puppy for Christmas can turn into tragedy. It’s essential to look for a known breeder, and see where the puppy has come from, and to at least see its mother and ensure that it is genuinely the puppy’s dam