TINY biting flies are emerging across Europe this week as spring returns. At 15 °C, any bluetongue virus they are carrying will start replicating, and the disease will spread. Unless sheep and cattle in its path are vaccinated it could ravage Europe’s sheep flocks.
But it seems unlikely there will be enough vaccine to stop the virus spreading. What’s more, European Union regulations mean what vaccine there is cannot be used to stop it invading new areas.
Cold winters used to keep the disease out of temperate countries, but an African strain of bluetongue called BTV8 appeared in Belgium in…
