Vaccination against the bluetongue disease in ruminant livestock is underway in several EU member states, some of which are following the European Commission-funded program to prevent the spread of the disease. IFAH-Europe acknowledges that animal disease is high on the Commission’s agenda, and hopes that this priority will be reflected in the Commission’s budget. The funding of animal health programs forms one of the key themes of the IFAH-Europe conference, Animal Health Solutions for the Future, to be held on June 12th in Brussels, Belgium. 
Declan O'Brian: "We want to know what could happen in a few years’ time so we can plan our research."
The conference is timed appropriately to coincide with the key concerns facing the animal health industry, with bluetongue and other disease priorities dominating the agenda. This year’s conference will have more of an outward focus than in 2007, which dealt specifically with regulatory challenges, Declan O’Brien, managing director of the European animal health industry association, told Animal Pharm.
The Commission is allocating more than €130m ($203m) for the co-financing of member states’ emergency vaccination plans against bluetongue in 2008. Protecting animals against the disease, particularly the BTV serotypes that have recently emerged in Europe (BTV-8 and BTV-1), is a key priority as farmers seek to prevent economic losses on the scale of last year’s outbreaks.
The Commission has started to develop action plans to tackle specific diseases through the strategy. However, IFAH-Europe wants a commitment on the setting of disease priorities and the amount of funding available for animal health research for diagnostics, vaccines and to strengthen biosecurity.
“We want to know what could happen in a few years’ time so we can plan our research,” said Mr O’Brien. He stressed that African horse sickness (AHS), which is spread by the same midges that carry bluetongue disease, could pose a threat to animals in the EU. Rift Valley fever, which killed thousands of animals in Africa in 2006 and 2007, and West Nile virus are also dangerous zoonoses....
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