FARMING COMMENT

Bluetongue disease looks likely to have become endemic in the south of England and that poses a real threat to British sheep next summer, as the disease continues its spread north.

Bluetongue is an insect-borne virus that threatens to kill up to half of the sheep and approximately one per cent of cattle it infects. There are many strains of the virus, but the one that has recently infected English livestock is bluetongue-8, for which there is as yet no cure or vaccine.

The disease was first described in South Africa and it then spread through the tropics and sub-tropics. Last year, there were cases on farms in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, but despite the imposition of 20-kilometre standstill zones around the infected farms, the disease has become endemic in Northern Europe.

The first case in England was detected on a farm in East Anglia on September 22, most probably as a result of infected midges being blown across the English Channel.

The UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed on September 28 that bluetongue was circulating within the animal and midge populations in East Anglia. By the end of last week, there were 37 premises confirmed as affected by bluetongue located in a cluster in the Ipswich area, with cases in Essex and near Lowestoft in Suffolk.

Fortunately, colder weather prevents the disease spreading, as the midges are not active when temperatures drop to less than 15C. The cattle population will act as the main reservoir of the virus until the midges become active again next spring. Midges can spread the disease by about two kilometres per day, but have spread it as far as 15 kilometres in a day, so it is almost inevitable that it will arrive in Scotland next summer.

Unlike foot-and mouth-disease that can be eradicated by ruthless culling of farm animals, there is no way to cull midges.

A different strain of the disease, bluetongue-4 is endemic in Spain, where a vaccine to protect sheep has been developed.

Work is now under way to produce a safe vaccine against the strain in the UK, but it is unlikely to be available until next summer and there may be logistical problems in producing adequate supplies. At a meeting later this month The Netherlands will call on the European Union to discuss developing a vaccine.

In the meantime, hill farmers are facing up to the reality that bluetongue could be sweeping out of control through their flocks next summer. The prospect of them helplessly watching nearly half of their sheep die from this dreadful disease will be too much for most.

Hill sheep farming is a Cinderella industry that suffers from very low prices and depends heavily on farm subsidies. Few have been making a profit in recent years and most depend on the single farm payment, less favoured areas support scheme and payments for environmental schemes to survive.

The effects of export bans and movement controls as a result of the current foot-and-mouth outbreak have turned this autumn into a financial disaster and pushed many to the brink.

Scotland's hill farmers are an ageing population where the average is close to 60. For the first time in my life, I have heard a fair number of these tough, resilient men tell me that they have had enough. Men who can cope with the worst of weather in some of the harshest environments in Europe are ready to quit. If that happens, Scotland will face one of the biggest environmental and demographic disasters yet. There will be no going back.

It takes a certain type of person to work with hill sheep. More importantly, shepherding skills are not easily learned and are passed down from father to son.

Then there are the sheep. The sheep that graze Scotland's unfenced hills are "hefted" to the land. Hefting ensures they continue to graze their own particular area of the hill rather than stray from their relatives and birthplace.

Once a hill has had its hefted sheep removed it would be too labour intensive and nigh on impossible to successfully reintroduce sheep as they would continually stray in the absence of expensive fencing. Straying sheep on unfenced hills make it virtually impossible to introduce meaningful breeding programmes, or even guarantee that rams are not mating with their daughters.

Once our system of hill sheep farming is lost, it will be lost forever.

That will be particularly tragic at a time of soaring grain prices and general food inflation. Scotland's hills may not be as productive as the American corn belt, but they are the basis for the rest of the UK sheep industry, as surplus ewe lambs and older ewes from the hills are sold to low-ground farms to be crossed with more prolific sheep.

Scottish hill farmers are going to need a lot of encouragement and support in the coming year if they are to cope with bluetongue disease and continue to produce naturally reared Scottish lamb.