Posted on February, 27 2009

I am Marc Bormans from Fexhe-le-Haut-Clocher in the province of Liège. I am a vet, specialised in cattle breeding and I also work as a farmer. I have been doing both jobs for almost 20 years.

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I have noticed that the average temperature has increased over the years. Because of global warming, ruminants can graze for longer; the grass starts to grow earlier and is also available for longer in the autumn. This is also beneficial for crops that require a lot of warmth, such as maize. However, there are also disadvantages that arise from this situation.

Since the 1990s there have been more heat waves accompanied by periods of drought. These heat waves have serious consequences for crops such as peas, beans and carrots. We have had years when the yield of these vegetables has dropped by more than 50%. I fear that we will see more of this sort of weather pattern in the future, causing our harvest to suffer even more.

On the other hand, we don’t often get a lot of snow. Long periods of frost are also increasingly seldom. The winter of 2008-2009 was an exception in this respect. Farmers are not happy with this trend as hard frosts have positive effects on the soil; frost repairs the structure of the soil, making the soil more aerated, more fertile and easier to work in the following summer. Frost also kills a whole variety of parasites.

Bluetongue disease

I was really surprised by the appearance of the ‘bluetongue’ disease in the cattle of several breeders and also in my own sheep at the end of the summer of 2007. We hadn’t ever seen this African disease here before the summer of 2007. Officially, this disease first appeared in Belgium and the Netherlands in August 2006.

Bluetongue disease (or catarrhal sheep fever) is caused by a virus that only affects ruminants such as cattle or sheep and not humans. The virus arrived here by coincidence, probably through infected imported livestock or through midges (small mosquitoes from the culicoid species) that carried the virus. The midge lives as a parasite on ruminants, enabling it to transmit the virus to cows or sheep.

Midges reproduce quickly in a favourable climate, for example when the winters are mild. The virus is then able to survive in our regions and infect a large number of animals.

The term 'bluetongue' refers to the blue tongue that sheep can get through a lack of oxygen.

The sheep were the first to fall victim to the disease. At the end of the summer of 2007 I had twelve ewes and about twenty lambs. I lost half of the lambs and two mothers over a period of three weeks.

There were fewer casualties among the cattle, but there were some serious economic losses; the cows found it difficult to eat and became weak. They were less fertile and the risk of miscarriage was higher. The animals suffered from swallowing difficulties, limping and ulcers.

I think that there were 25% fewer calves born in 2007-2008 and the whole herd has been affected. From the forty bulls that were examined, 95% were seropositive. The seropositive animals that had still not built up immunity were not used for insemination. The disease did not spread any further in 2008; the majority of the animals had developed a natural immunity against the virus and preventative vaccinations increased this number still further.

It is alarming that an exotic disease is able to spread like this in our country. This leads to suspicions that climate change has a significant influence. A new disease could unexpectedly emerge again.