The control of the movement of animals of species susceptible to the disease and a successful compulsory vaccination program have contributed to the fact that in the last two years, there have been no cases in the Balearic Islands.

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The Balearic Islands are a bluetongue-free zone

The Animal Health Committee of the European Union, meeting on January 23rd and 24th, at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and after the preparation of a full report on the bluetongue health crisis, has declared the Balearic Islands a bluetongue-free zone after confirming that no cases of this disease have been detected in the last two years. A decision that, in the words of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment is considered “very positive”. The counsellor also added that “this declaration demonstrates the good and intense work that has been done from the Directorate General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, with the director Fernando Fernandez at the head, and also from the Animal Health and Welfare Service of the Govern in collaboration with the sector and with all field veterinarians attached to the associations of livestock health defence”.

It should be remembered that, in 2021, the Balearic Government notified 277 outbreaks of bluetongue in the islands: 270 in Mallorca, 1 in Menorca and 6 in Ibiza. For this reason, an action plan was adopted within the Islands, which consisted of the implementation of the relevant control measures, with serological, clinical and entomological surveillance programs, as well as the control of the animal movement of species susceptible to the diseases from restricted areas, and a mandatory vaccination program against different serotypes.

In this sense, and thanks to the measures adopted and the surveillance, two years later no outbreaks have been reported in the Islands and, for this reason, all the conditions established in Article 66. a) and Annex V of Delegated Regulation 689/2020 of the European Commission to be considered a free zone for this disease are fulfilled. “In the impulse and execution of the control program, the livestock health defence associations have played a very relevant role. Thanks to their involvement and their veterinarians, the program has been developed in a much more agile and effective way”, explained the general director of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández.

In detail, the annual expenditure of the bluetongue vaccination campaign in the Balearic Islands is 190,661.88 euros, to which 315,001.48 euros must be added for monitoring and control expenses. This amount is also increased by 115,899 euros to purchase supplies, transport costs and other contracts. Thus, the total annual expenditure is 661,552.36 euros.

This vaccination campaign reaches 2,592 livestock farms (204 cattle and 2,388 sheep), meaning that the total number of animals receiving the bluetongue vaccine is 270,153.

Bluetongue is a non-contagious infectious viral disease affecting domestic and wild ruminants, caused by an arbovirus (family Reoviridae, genus Orbivirus) that is transmitted only by the bite of infected mosquitoes of the genus Culicoides. Thus, the distribution and spread of the disease depend on the distribution of its biological vectors.