Midges bring killer threat to livestock

European swarms carrying brain virus poised to cross into UK from France

Midges bring killer threat to livestock

European swarms carrying brain virus poised to cross into UK from France

Britain is about to be hit by a new disease caused by clouds of tiny midges that can be fatal to sheep and cattle.

Farmers have been warned by government officials to start checking their livestock for signs of bluetongue, a viral illness that causes brain disease in some animals but does not affect humans.

It is expected to arrive in the next few weeks as the midges, thought to be flourishing in the warm weather, are swept over the Channel by winds. The disease has already spread across the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of Germany and areas of France, which cannot now export their animals.

The emergence of the disease is one of several threats that is now faced by Britain as a result of climate change. Some human illnesses, such as allergies and skin cancer, are also likely to become more prevalent, and health experts have re-assessed how the NHS would cope if there were a serious heatwave.

Whitehall planners are currently looking at how Britain could prepare for extreme weather events that have the potential to cause catastrophes and epidemics. As temperatures rise, the risk of events such as flooding and drought has increased to a point where emergency plans across different regions have to be altered to allow for such hazards.

Last month, April's average temperatures hit a record high following a very mild winter. According to government predictions, there is a one in 40 chance by 2012 that the south east will have experienced a serious heatwave. Government-funded researchers who run the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) in Oxford forecast that across Britain average temperatures will rise, particularly in the south east and during summer, and that winters will be wetter and summers drier.

They have also warned that extremes of flooding, storm surges around the coast, gale-force winds and heatwaves will become more likely. The warnings are being taken extremely seriously by officials across different government departments, who now have to plan for increasingly unpredictable events.

There are also concerns that the rate of allergies will increase as the prolonged heat means the pollen season lasts for longer - and worries that the pollen grains themselves will change to become stronger, and more likely to cause allergies. Skin cancer rates are also likely to rise as people will spend longer outside in the sunshine, increasing their exposure to UV rays.

But it may be bluetongue that provides the first indication of how new diseases will emerge as flies and ticks survive through the milder winters.

The National Farmers' Union has been issued with guidance from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on what to look out for. The virus causes swelling in the animal's head and neck, muscle degeneration, and sometimes death. Any farm that had the disease would have to be isolated, and a 150km restriction zone set up around the area, but livestock could move within that region - and the countryside would not be closed off, as it was in the foot-and-mouth scare. The meat from infected animals cannot be exported, but can still be eaten without danger to humans.

Chris West, director of UKCIP, said that Britain might have to adapt to the threats of climate change by making more fundamental social changes so that neighbours and communities would have a greater role in looking out for each other - for example, checking up on elderly people who are very vulnerable during a heatwave. 'In a civilised country we really shouldn't have old people dying with nobody coming to look after them,' said West.

Droughts are also becoming an increasing threat. Environment minister Ian Pearson warned at a conference two weeks ago: 'Today, England and Wales have less water per person than in most Mediterranean countries. In the south east there is less water per person than in Syria ... Last year's drought was a microcosm of the challenges we face.'