Britain has moved to suspend live cattle, sheep and goat imports from France after the French authorities confirmed a number of cases of epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD).

The presence of the disease was officially reported in France on 21 September for the first time.

Nineteen outbreaks of EHD have been confirmed in the south of France. Spain and Portugal have also reported outbreaks of the disease.

There have been consignments of live cattle and sheep scheduled to arrive in Britain from France in recent weeks.

Britain’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) confirmed that back-tracing is being conducted to identify any consignments of live ruminants and ruminant germplasm from France over the past 28 days.

“Trade of live ruminants from France is postponed as they are no longer able to comply with relevant animal health certificates. Additionally, there have been no trade consignments of live cattle or sheep received in Britain from Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily or Spain since 1 September 2022.”

Spread

DEFRA has said that the disease was confirmed in France after it crossed the Pyrenees mountains which border Spain. The primary vectors of the disease are midges.

“This is significant because now that EHD has crossed the Pyrenees mountains there is greater potential for spread across mainland Europe towards Britain,” DEFRA stated.

It was previously assumed that the movement of live animals carrying the virus and/or infected vectors into France from an affected area would be the most likely way in which EHD would enter the country. This is still the most likely case for Britain, DEFRA added.

The midges which spread the virus “are potentially capable of traveling up to 150km over land and 700km over water in one day”, DEFRA said, adding that it should be noted that the outbreaks that occurred in French cattle farms are close to recent outbreaks in Spain.

Risk

As there is currently a ban on the trade of live animals from the affected areas and tracings of imports from France in the four-week period prior to EHD is under way, the risk to Britain is currently from the incursion of infected midges (windborne and via transport) from areas it trades with that have undetected EHD, DEFRA said.

“Therefore, we consider the risk of introduction of EHD into Britain via movement of live animals and/or vectors to be negligible. We will continue to monitor the situation,” it said.

What is EHD?

EHD is a vector-borne infectious non-contagious viral disease of domestic and wild ruminants, primarily deer and cattle. The disease is spread by midges.

Sheep and goats might also be susceptible, Ireland’s Department of Agriculture said. Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain are free of EHD. The disease has never been reported in Ireland and it is a notifiable disease.

The main signs of the disease in cattle are fever, weakness, lack of appetite, difficulty swallowing, mouth ulcers, lameness and redness and scaling of the nose and lips.

EHD does not affect people or food safety.