Bluetongue virus tests ‘negative’

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 7

Bluetongue virus tests ‘negative’

NZPA Canberra. Tests have shown there was no evidence that the new strain of bluetongue virus discovered in the Northern Territory had caused disease symptoms in cattle or buffalo, the Australian Minister for Primary Industry (Mr lan Sinclair) has said. Whether it could cause disease in sheep was not yet known. In a statement issued in Canberra, he said that eradication of the virus by slaughter of susceptible livestock in the known infected areas was not considered justifiable. Mr Sinclair was releasing the latest report of the consultative committee which was set up to study the bluetongue situation. The group has been meeting in Armidaie, in northwest New South Wales, to review the latest information.

“Nearly 4000 ' serum neutralisation tests so far completed show that evidence of virus infection is primarily confined to the most northern parts of Australia,” Mr Sinclair said. “The northern part of the Northern Territory is the main area in which serological reactions in cattle and buffaloes have been found, but positive blood reactions have also been recorded in the gulf area of the territory, the Mitchell River region of Cape York, and in a group of buffalo in the southeast of Queensland. “There is no evidence that the virus has caused disease symptoms in cattle or buffalo. “The pathogenecity of the virus for sheep is still unproven. “Transmission experiments at Long Pocket and in South Africa are as yet inconclusive. “Sentinel sheep at Dar-

win have developed disease symptoms not unlike bluetongue, but the disease in these sheep has not been positively confirmed as bluetongue by virus isolation or positive blood tests.” Mr Sinclair said tests on the virus done in South Africa had shown some differences in structure in the Australian virus compared with the classic bluetongue virus. it might have entered Australia by means of infected insects from SouthEast Asia, and it was clear that it had entered before March, 1975. Mr Sinclair said that even though slaughter of susceptible livestock in the presently known infected areas was not considered justifiable, the consultative committee was considering the slaughter of infected animals found in isolated pockets outside the northern infected area.