The private laboratory that identified the first cases of the newly-emerging Shamonda virus in Ireland will engage with farmers and vets on what the disease is and what the signs are.

That's according to vet Freya Vaughan, managing director of Animal Health Laboratories in Bandon, Co. Cork.

The lab has detected the midge-borne disease in samples from cattle on dairy farms in the south of the country.

The virus was detected in samples from three animals on two farms.

Speaking to Agriland, Vaughan said the fact that this virus was circulating in Europe first became known during the summer.

About one month ago, the Cork-based lab had "an emergency kind of webinar" with staff from its Dutch-based parent company, GD Group.

"Not a huge amount was known about it, but they were just getting calls from farmers... They were getting a lot of calls, mostly dairy farmers, saying that there's huge drops in milk production," Vaughan said.

"So you can see cattle go from 25, 30 litres a day down to 5L a day. So that was the main signal," she added.

Within the last week, farmers in the region where Animal Health Laboratories operates started calling in reporting "this major milk drop" as well as diarrhoea in cattle.

"So people send in samples, blood samples usually, from cattle, and [we] would run it for bluetongue virus...and other diseases. And then what we were finding was they were negative for those diseases," Vaughan explained.

She added: "Then we got this new test in-house for this Shamonda-like virus. So a couple of people rang and said would you mind testing it for that now as well. And we did that, and we've had three positives so far."

Shamonda virus is in the same family of viruses as Schmallenberg virus.

However, Vaughan explained that little is known about it at present; it is not part of a national surveillance plan and is not a notifiable disease.

The first cases of the disease in Europe were only confirmed as recently as July, with cases initially in France, Germany and Switzerland.

Symptoms and impact

The vet outlined symptoms of the virus, and how it can effect cattle.

"It's kind of like a virus passing through them for about a week. So you'd notice this massive reduction in milk yield. That's the number one question we're getting from farmers and from vets," she said.

"You get some really unusual scour, like a really, really watery diarrhoea, and you get a fever. So usually a temperature of over 39.6°, up to 40°, over 40°," Vaughan added.

The virus may also potentially effect the animal's brain; Vaughan noted that two horses in Switzerland were found to have neurological symptoms after being exposed to Shamonda virus, although it's unclear at this stage how exactly the virus causes this.

One notable concern going forward is next spring's calving and lambing season; as the disease is related to Schmallenberg virus, there is concern Shamonda virus could also lead to birth defects in calves and lambs, as happens with Schmallenberg.

"The concern is that we don't know how it'll affect next spring. So we don't know how it's going to affect lambs or calves... It's the same family of viruses, so there is the fear there that it will cause something like that," Vaughan said.

"We don't know, and nobody knows, and we won't know until next spring, if we see deformed calves or anything like that," she added.

"It gives us a good idea that if there is trouble with a calving or lambing, from the point of view of giving advice to vets, they might keep it in the back of their minds that we've had Shamonda-like virus here in the summer," she said.

According to Vaughan, Animal Health Laboratories has been attending meetings and conferences of vets, and has also held information evening for farmers on Shamonda virus (as well as other diseases, including bluetongue).

"So we're basically just trying to get information out there about the virus, and about bluetongue, and what to expect," she said.

She said the lab will organise an online information webinar, and will attend farmer discussion groups, adding that this engagement with farmers and vets "is something we'll definitely continue on with".

Vaughan noted that further detections of Shamonda virus are likely.

She said: "It's midge-borne. So as long as midges are active, it's very mild at the moment... So we will expect more, absolutely."

She said that farmers or their vets can contact the lab to arrange a test.

"It's a PCR test. It's very rapid, very accurate, and it's a blood sample... So it's something to just keep in mind if you're seeing cows with a really decreased milk production and a high temperature. It's something to keep in mind to test for," Vaughan said.