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Prevalence of seropositive sheep within flocks where Schmallenberg Virus infection was suspected or confirmed

The British farming industry is in its second year of the ongoing Schmallenberg virus (SBV) infection (Davies and others 2012). Work from continental EU shows the degree of herd/flock seropositivity (and possible immunity) can vary geographically (Garigliany and others 2012, Bayrou and others 2013, Beer and others 2013), presumably due to differences in vector exposure factors. The UK industry remains unsure of the extent of exposure within the national flock, since national surveillance to date has focused on the geographic spread of infection rather than the degree of exposure at flock level (AHVLA 2013). This work investigated the extent of virus exposure and, therefore, possible immunity (as determined by seropositivity to SBV) in flocks where SBV infection was confirmed or likely (due to close proximity to confirmed infection), to give farmers an indication of flock susceptibility, to aid their management decision making.

Client farms wanting to understand their flock SBV exposure and, therefore, potential immunity, and with SBV exposure either confirmed or likely, were included (Table 1). Sample size calculations and subsequent data analysis were conducted using CI Analysis Software V.2.2.0 (Altman and …