Can the sting prevent the midges? Vaccination against bluetongue is a race against time

A sheep is not easy to catch. That is the biggest challenge when veterinarian Tjesse van der Leij has put on a blue overall in the yard of the farm in Boskoop and walks into the stable with a syringe in hand. The struggling sheep are driven into the corner of the stable with part of a fence.

Around a hundred sheep on the farm of Jan de Jong (75) received the injection on Wednesday. With most sheep this has already happened before the animal even realizes it. Needle in the skin, red stripe on the back and on to the next. “It’s just like the corona street,” says Van der Leij. “It’s not that big of a deal, you just have to wait a while.”

These days the vet drives from farm to farm in the Groene Hart. When the outgoing cabinet announced two weeks ago that the bluetongue vaccine had been approved, the bells started ringing. The waiting list now includes more than eighty sheep and dairy farmers. They all know the misery of bluetongue, and they all can’t wait until their animals have had the shot.

The animal disease has spread like wildfire across livestock farms in more than six months, resulting in tens of thousands of dead animals. Things went particularly fast among sheep. It is estimated that around 8.4 percent of the more than 662 thousand sheep in the Netherlands succumbed to the virus. To prevent a new ‘bluetongue wave’, a vaccine was developed at an accelerated pace this winter.

Exceptional

First the sheep, then the cows. That, in short, is the strategy, says Van der Leij as he again injects two milliliters of vaccination fluid into a sheep’s body. “Cows generally become less ill from the virus. And they need two injections, sheep only need one.” The first batch from the Spanish pharmaceutical company Syva consists of one million vaccines, with the same quantity following within a few weeks.

De Jong’s sheep are one of the first in line, the sheep farmer was relieved to hear. His farm was also not spared from bluetongue. “It’s a tragedy when you have it. If you go to the country ten mornings and ten mornings you find a dead sheep, that will not make you happy. And I’m not even talking about the sheep that were in pain for three weeks.”

He lost fourteen sheep, another ten were terminally ill. “In this area that is actually very little,” says Van der Leij. “The first infections were around Vinkeveen. There a vet was smart enough to test a sheep that was sick for bluetongue. After that, things went fast.”

A vaccination campaign of this scale is relatively exceptional in the Netherlands. In addition, haste is required: the midges, small flies that spread the virus, become active as soon as the temperature rises. The midge season usually starts in the spring, with summer as its peak. That makes the vaccination campaign a race against time.

According to spokesperson Julia Hamel of the Royal Dutch Society for Veterinary Medicine (KNMvD), every effort is being made to prevent a new outbreak. “We are gathering all the auxiliary troops we can find. And it is also a matter of working efficiently. We are all going to get this job done together.”

The professional organization for veterinarians opened a job board where volunteers can register to help veterinary practices. The willingness to help proved to be great: within a few days the website was filled with retired veterinarians, volunteers and students offering their help.

It is not known how many of them are deployed. There are veterinarians, such as Van der Leij, who prefer to keep matters in their own hands. “We are trying to streamline it a bit,” he says. “Our area is quite large, so we want to avoid having to drive back and forth every time. We have one that has really had a lot of problems. He claims to have suffered 35,000 euros in damage. We will give them priority.”

Powerlessness

Although some farmers initially had doubts because of the costs, Van der Leij sees a high willingness to vaccinate. When the vet walks back to his van after the last sheep, the next job already presents itself. The farmer’s son from a farm further away asks if he can drop by there too.

Van der Leij is happy that he can do something. For veterinarians, the underlying bluetongue wave was mainly characterized by a feeling of powerlessness. “Most sheep actually died of their own accord because they could not eat due to an infection in the mouth. And if you don’t eat, we can’t think of anything for that either. That’s one of the few things we can’t do.”

“It’s frustrating when you have to tell people the same story all day long. That you are actually just powerless. We could give them painkillers and antibiotics, but they had to overcome that virus themselves. Now you might give people a little hope, which is a better feeling.”

The vaccine is expected to provide protection against the virus for a year. The hope is that this will prevent a new wave. “But nature cannot be controlled,” says Hamel. “If the midges become active around this time, you can already get some sick animals. But we now really hope to avoid the misery of last year.”

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