The report is positive, there is still no official confirmation from the national reference center in Teramo, but according to rumors the tests have detected the presence of the nodular bovine dermatitis virus also in the Orotelli farm from where blood samples and scabs from some animals were taken in recent days.
After the alarm raised in Orani , there is now a second outbreak in the nearby town, fifteen kilometres away as the crow flies.
Since bovine dermatitis falls into class A, and is therefore considered to be at high risk of transmission, the Island is now under special observation, and while in the territories of the restriction zone (which extends from Nuoro to part of the provinces of Sassari and Oristano, to Baronia, Ogliastra and Barbagia di Seulo) widespread checks continue in companies to ascertain the possible presence of other infections, veterinary services are on alert throughout the national territory.
In the farms in the protection zone (up to twenty kilometers from the outbreaks) and in those in the surveillance belt (within a radius of another thirty kilometers), clinical visits are carried out on the animals, but the focus is above all on the entomological investigation to identify the insect vector of the virus, which could be a tick, or a culicoides, or a mosquito.
In the meantime, farmers have to deal with the damage and loss of earnings resulting from yet another plague. They are gritting their teeth, and will have to do so for another week, until the end of the ten-day ban on livestock movement.
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