Vaccination against bluetongue from March to July. This is the announcement made this morning by the councilors of Agriculture, Gianfranco Satta, and Health, Armando Bartolazzi, in the press conference called to detail how the campaign will work for 2025. "It will be brought forward in the risk areas, with order of priority and until the available doses run out", the councilors communicated. In recent days, targeted and effective interventions had been requested to prevent the epidemic from spreading again .
Blue tongue, a catarrhal fever that has become a real emergency in recent seasons, had its epidemic peak in mid-September in 2024, with a decrease in cases starting in the following weeks . "To deal with any future resurgences of the infection in the regional territory", the councilors continue, "it is more necessary than ever to adopt an integrated context approach from now on by the institutions involved, defining and coordinating the interventions to be launched in a synergic manner in the regional territory to combat and prevent the disease".
Data on vaccines were also released: 3 million vaccine doses for the BTV8 serotype are already available in the Sardinia Region, 1.2 million doses are being purchased by the Izs (Zooprophylactic Institute) and 350,000 doses are already available for BTV4 . The Region recalls the data on the sheep population of the Island: 2.6 million heads, with 11,000 establishments (companies) in which sheep farms are present. Sheep farms are instead approximately 13,000 in total.
«During 2024», the Region recalls, «we have witnessed a worrying resurgence of bluetongue which, since July, has affected the regional territory with particular regard to serotypes 3 (BTV 3) and 8 (BTV 8) and to a much lesser extent to serotype 4 (BTV4). The circulation of BTV8 has especially affected northern Sardinia and the Province of Nuoro, while that of BTV3 has affected central and southern Sardinia. Since July 2024, 4,060 outbreaks of bluetongue have been recorded ».
(Online Union)