Welcome
Keep the South West Bluetongue free
Vaccinate in 2009
The successful vaccination campaign of 2008 kept the South West virtually free of Bluetongue last year. The enthusiasm and endeavour of South West farmers and animal keepers made sure that Bluetongue did not become established in our livestock. However, the threat still exists.
This website has been created as a specific output of the South West Bluetongue Awareness project. The aim of the project is to effectively target livestock farmers who have not vaccinated their stock against Bluetongue with information particularly on the economic costs of the disease. The website is specifically aimed at livestock farmers in the south west of England.
The objectives of the website are to show the economic cost of having Bluetongue, provide information on vaccination, and information on out breaks of the disease.
Other objectives of the wider project are to:
- Involve the veterinary sector and their farmer customers in recording vaccination of stock through on line data bases.
- To role out training events in the most needed areas (where vaccination uptake is thought to be low).
The website provides background on the disease and its vector, an update on the extent of vaccination (extracted from the project data collection activities), details of forthcoming events and updates from Defra. A key feature of the website is a series of case-studies providing information on the economic benefit of vaccination and the potential consequences of failing to vaccinate. A quiz page offers an opportunity to test their knowledge of the disease based on the technical information available on the website.
The project is managed by Duchy College’s Rural Business School through funding provided the South West of England Regional Development Agency through the Rural Development Programme for England.
The project funding period is until June 2009.
This project is part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for European Development 2007-2013: Europe investing in rural areas.
For further information on the project, contact The Rural Business School on 0845 458 7 845 or at rbs@duchy.ac.uk.