Resumen de Lengua azul: situación actual y perspectivas de futuro. ¿Es posible su erradicación?

N.G.C. Vasileiou, D.C. Chatzopoulos, A. Giannakopoulos, Kostas Ioannidis, G. Valiakos, G.S. Amiridis, T.M. Chouzouris, Labrini V. Athanasiou, V.S. Mavrogianni, E. Papadopoulos, K.S. Kyriakis, P. Birtsas, V. Spyrou, C. Billinis, G.C. Fthenakis

• An outbreak of bluetongue (serotype 4) started in Greece and expandedthroughout south-east Europe in 2014. The firt disease was firstdiagnosed in south Greece, from where it expanded northwards up toHungary by end of the year. Only Turkey opted for vaccination, whilst allother countries opted for conservative control measures. Sheep were themain animal species affected, in which we often observed anaemia, arare manifestation of the disease. Other species affected included goats,cattle and roe deer. Apart from the direct effects of the disease (increasedmorbidity and fatality), after clinical remission, other consequenceshave been reported, e.g., infections by opportunistic pathogens, reducedreproductive efficiency. In the spring of 2015, vaccinations have beenlicenced, which might alter the course of the disease and help control it.