Indagine sull'impatto della vaccinazione per Bluetongue sulla produzione di latte negli allevamenti ovini

Survey on the impact of bluetongue vaccination on milk production in sheep farms
The issue of vaccination versus the Bluetongue virus (BTV) has raised many concerns about possible adverse
effects. Such concerns have been reduced considerably since the live attenuated virus vaccines have been
replaced by inactivated vaccines. However many people, mainly belonging to breeders’ world, were still
complaining about adverse effects especially on milk production. In order to assess the validity of these
complaints, the Animal Health Service of the ASL of Sassari, in cooperation with the Department of Veterinary
Medicine at the University of Sassari, developed an experimental study on Sardinian sheep flocks with high
milk yield. Two groups of flocks were used: the first vaccinated and re-boosted, the other as a control. Both
were evaluated for the trend of daily milk yield/head and somatic cell counts. In the vaccinated group,
controls were performed before and after each of the two inoculations, in control flocks the checks were
carried out approximately in the same periods. The results obtained show that inactivated vaccines,
administered as prescribed, do not appear to interfere significantly with milk yield in Sardinian sheep breed.