I’m fed up with talking about the weather, but I can console myself with the fact we have grabbed every opportunity so far and progress is not too bad.Climate change could bring new disease threat
GREATER vigilance is needed as climate change alters the seasonality of endemic infections and the likely appearance of formerly unseen parasites, warned vet scientists at a North West Livestock Health and Welfare Conference held at Liverpool University’s vet school.
Jan van Dijk said work he was involved in at the vet school to monitor temperature and rainfall changes showed disease patterns had already begun to alter.
Data already suggests fluke has risen significantly in recent years, although this masks regional variations as parasites react and adapt to changes in localised weather conditions, he said.
Not all parasites and disease will benefit from climate change. Much depends on their ability to evolve, particularly those spending much of their lifecycle outside a host animal’s body.
“The difficulty for scientists is to accurately predict change,” said Dr van Dijk. “For example, using climate change data from a study in 2006 suggested bluetongue could be seen on UK shores by 2015 to 2030 - it arrived in 2007.
“There is a need for farmers to be vigilant. Signs normally associated to one disease may actually be early symptoms of another, unfamiliar disease, especially if seen outside of a normal period for infection.
“Only by improving the monitoring of disease - including the use of state veterinary labs for identification - can we begin to see how fast change is taking place.
“It can be a real problem for the farmer as there are limited medicines for treating parasites, such as fluke for example. It may be necessary to look at physical actions, such as fencing off pasture near to watercourses and limiting contact between groups of animals to help with control.”
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