The Bluetongue animal disease affects domestic and wild ruminants, such as sheep and cattle. It is a disease transmitted by flying vectors, namely midge insects belonging to the Culicoides genus. Bluetongue is not harmful to humans. In August 2006, several Northern European countries reported outbreaks of Bluetongue. Until that date the Bluetongue disease had only been present in the European Union in some parts of Southern Europe.

EFSA’s main role is to provide scientific support and expertise on the disease to European Union risk managers, specifically the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Member States. The EFSA Animal Health and Welfare Panel (AHAW Panel) is working on Bluetongue and has published a scientific note on the disease. EFSA is actively networking with Member States and EU institutions in the collection of data on Bluetongue. Bluetongue is a trans-boundary disease, where the epidemiological situation of one member state may affect the neighbouring ones and where the implementation of individual national measures alone tends not to be sufficient.

Therefore EFSA has asked Member States to work with it in collecting data and sharing risk assessments on the recent Bluetongue outbreaks. This co-operation will allow an integrated and comprehensive European approach in order to better understand the dynamics and spreading patterns of this disease.