FMD
With no new outbreaks the surveillance blood testing to lift the SZ is on going and should be completed on Friday which if all goes well will allow the lifting of the SZ. The RZ that was put in place by the EU (i.e. 2 counties around the SZ) will remain in place.
A SCoFCAH meeting is due early next week and it is hoped that the EU risk area will be reduced and also export of meat from the rest of GB will return to the normal requirements. Any decisions taken at the SCoFCAH meeting will take a period of time to come into effect.

BT
At present there are 60 confirmed premises with BT. There are 12 cases under investigation and 149 cases have been ruled out. 27 of the cases have been found on surveillance of farms surrounding the report cases.

Initial testing of neighbouring farms in the Ipswich and Lowestoft area is nearly complete. AH are now concentrating on tracing and testing all animals that have moved from the CZ since August 4th. This is been done on an outside inward system. When this is complete surveillance around the Cambridgeshire farms will start.

New EU regulations came into force today (1266/2007) these update the setting up of zones etc. within the EU and will lead to a change in the name of the present zones. They also deal with movement in and between zones. This covers animals to slaughter, animals to live and also semen and embryos. Some of these changes will be in a new Bluetongue Order hopefully published tomorrow.

Defra are in the process of assessing these changes and their possible implementation in the English situation. Possible scenarios are the movement of animals out of the PZ to live i.e. farm-to-farm with testing and vector control requirements. This may be allowed to take place during a period when vectors are not active. However all these are subject to the position of the disease in the country and weather conditions over the next couple of months.

Defra today announced that it has put out a tender for up to 20 million doses of BTV8 vaccine. This vaccine is for use only in England, the devolved governments will have to tender for their own stocks. The use of this vaccine has again not been decided and will depend upon the date of delivery, how far the virus has spread in the country, weather conditions, European policy on control etc. BCVA do have a place on the stakeholder panel discussing these situations.

The BT situation is being assessed on a daily basis and the situation is still very dynamic.