Economic impact of Bluetongue: a review of the effects on production.

Bluetongue (BT) is often said to be a disease of severe economic consequence with a global estimate of US$ 3 billion. This review describes the most relevant contribution in the extant literature on production related losses due to BT. In summary, the impact of the endemic situations appears to be relatively small and surrounds the impacts on flock and herd fertility. The largest and most serious impact with BT in the epidemic situations has been in the reactions to the presence and risk of the disease. Such a reaction, in hindsight, has been far greater than the production losses caused by the disease. More data are required with more careful analysis to provide better impact assessment for BT. This would offer the ground for research prioritisation and the rebalancing of resource allocation. Such an economic impact assessment should follow scientific methods mirroring the careful and thorough biological work on BT.