Blue Tongue Disease

[glojo]

Am I missing something or did I hear that this terrible disease is carried by midge's (mig) or tiny flies?

If so then why have the police set up exclusion zones? Are these flies low flying, law abiding insects that stick to the highways and bye-ways?

If this government acted in it's usual lap dog manner of copying America, shouldn't we now be having patrols of fighter aircraft patrolling our skies and threatening to shoot down any of the terrorists that have commenced an all-out biological attack on our food source? Any midge or should it be Mig? that fails to comply with instructions from our brave pilots should be shot down immediately.

For those that do not know what a mig looks like, here is a picture of twenty nine of them:

A Mig-29

Regards
John

 

[grober]

Vectors

If so then why have the police set up exclusion zones? Probably to stop any animal movement in and out of the area. The assumption being that other animals on that farm or close at hand (midge range) are also infected. If you were to move these animals together with their midge passengers by cattle/sheep float that then gives the disease a range much greater than individual midge flight. Fortunately impending cold weather may wipe out the disease vector soon. At the risk of being accused of being a "tree hugger" global climate change will have an effect on vector borne diseases and may have influenced this present european outbreak. Not quite at the stage of breaking out the old mosquito nets in the South of England yet but you get my point. http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/TG/HH/veclev2.html

 

[glojo]

I've just seen the documentation issued to all officers at these checkpoints. There is an All Ports Alert (APT) issued for the following critta:

Wanted dead or alive, preferably dead and under NO circumstances must this beast be given the 'Kiss of Life'
(KOL)

Regards
John

 

[R2e]

What a slur this is on law abiding midges, which, as we know are largely a Scottish insect. Even now a battalion is heading south to Torquay to, en masse, lift up their kilts and display their nether regions in the general direction of John. And, as you probably know, blue tongue is nothing. When you're wearing a kilt in the traditional fashion, blue nether regions is more the order of the day.

Graeme, you're a tree hugger (well you did recognise the risk ) but I guess you're right, global warming is likely to have an effect on insect borne disease spread.

 

[R2e]

I've just seen the documentation issued to all officers at these checkpoints. There is an All Ports Alert (APT) issued for the following critta:

Wanted dead or alive, preferably dead and under NO circumstances must this beast be given the 'Kiss of Life'
(KOL)

Regards
John

Oh no! Does this mean open season on Brazilians again.................

 

[grober]

Culicoides Impuctatus aka the Scottish "midgie"

Heres a picture of the little "stealth bomber" notice the cunning lack of any roundel identification on the wings. God help us if it ever became a human disease vector.

 

[recycled]

that mig looks more capable than anything we have got to stop it

 

[verytalldave]

I hope thats not a "full size" photo.............

 

[grober]

I hope thats not a "full size" photo.............

Wingspan is approx 1.4 mm but they make up for their size by coming "mob handed" in their thousands. They will feed for 3-4 minutes at at a time and biologists have reported bite rates of 2,000 to 3,000 per hour in high populations ( how they worked that out I have no idea!) Needless to say its the " deadlier than the male" of the species that does the damage.

 

[Ian B Walker]

When I first saw the title of this thread I immediately thought that Pammy was suffering from talking too much

 

[DITTRICH]

Watched the news about this the other day. A sort of "in depth" report which included a description of all the symptoms. I waited and waited but they never said one of the symptoms was a "blue tongue". Odd.
Les

 

[glojo]

Sadly it looks like the police check points have failed to arrest or detain these insects and DEFRA has now announced that there is officially an outbreak of this virus and it could possibly have been carried by native born midges. Not good.

Foot and mouth can be eradicated by culling animals, but blue tongue is completely different and can only be cured by killing off the insects? (Not easy)

150km protection zone but no culling.

John

 

[glojo]

Climate Change

It now looks like we are seeing the very first effects of climate change with the recognition of Blue Tongue disease.

DEFRA has now confirmed that native born midges are now carriers of this virus and there is nothing at present that can be done to eradicate it. The ONLY chance of this happening is for the UK to have a very severe winter with a freezing, cold spell that would last in excess of 60 days! On the plus side, they expect a vaccination to be available in a few years time?

John

 

[verytalldave]

Several people I work with suffer from Brown Tongue Disease.
Is this the same thing?

 

[Merc-C180K]

At least this will be keeping people in jobs...

On the down side, DEFRA may have to take analysts away from making sure the farmers get paid for producing carrots in Britain...

 

[jaymanek]

It now looks like we are seeing the very first effects of climate change with the recognition of Blue Tongue disease.

John

why? i read it was just the recent high winds that brought them over.... lets hope this does not get turned into a "we all need to take buses and ride cycles" campaign...

 

[glojo]

why? i read it was just the recent high winds that brought them over.... lets hope this does not get turned into a "we all need to take buses and ride cycles" campaign...

Stand by for bug education
The Mig-29's that blew over from Northern mainland Europe have now gone through their life cycle and are in that big hanger in the sky where all deceased Migs go, and DEFRA has now accepted that native born migs are now the carrier of this horrible virus. Hence the severity of the announcement. There is no cure, no antidote and no options. Farmers now have the responsibility of deciding when to humanely put down any suffering animals. There will be NO further culling.

John