{"id":19977,"date":"2025-12-09T11:09:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T05:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=19977"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:56:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T10:26:24","slug":"bluetongue-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bluetongue-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluetongue Virus (BTV)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Bluetongue Virus Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More suspected cases of bluetongue virus (BTV) have been recently detected in Northern Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Bluetongue Virus<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is responsible for <\/span><b>causing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the <\/span><b>severe haemorrhagic disease, bluetongue (BT).<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>infectious, non-contagious, vector-borne <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can <\/span><b>infect domestic ruminants,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including <\/span><b>cattle, sheep, and goats,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> along with <\/span><b>wild animals <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as <\/span><b>buffalo, deer, antelope, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>camels<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the domestic species, <\/span><b>sheep <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are the <\/span><b>most severely affected.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BTV is <\/span><b>present in all continents except Antarctica.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Transmission<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BTV is predominantly <\/span><b>spread between ruminants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through the <\/span><b>bites of infected Culicoides midges, tiny blood-feeding insects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that can be found in large numbers on most farms.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Some BTV strains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be<\/span><b> transferred from a ruminant mother to her fetus <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during pregnancy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Can the BTV Spread to Humans?\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>No<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, BTV <\/span><b>cannot infect people.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are <\/span><b>no food safety issues,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and meat and dairy products are safe to consume.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Clinical signs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">associated with bluetongue disease are <\/span><b>usually only seen in sheep<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (and <\/span><b>sometimes deer),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and it <\/span><b>can be fatal. Clinical Signs Include:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Fever <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(40\u00b0C to 42\u00b0C)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Swelling <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the lips, tongue, and head<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Nasal discharge<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lameness<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reddening around the coronary band (top of the hoof).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Some animals <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">may show signs of a <\/span><b>swollen, bluish-coloured tongue<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (hence the name \u2018bluetongue\u2019).\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will <\/span><b>not always be seen<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and should <\/span><b>not be relied upon to diagnose<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bluetongue disease.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BT can result in <\/span><b>high rates of morbidity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and even <\/span><b>mortality in flocks and herds <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and can affect production (e.g. milk yields) and trade.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Treatment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is <\/span><b>no effective treatment<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for bluetongue.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Vaccines are available <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for certain types of the disease and are used in Africa, Asia, and parts of Europe.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c17xreey4nwo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BBC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bluetongue Virus is responsible for causing the severe haemorrhagic disease, bluetongue (BT). Read more about Bluetongue Virus, Transmission, Treatment, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":77124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4108,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-19977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-bluetongue-virus","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}