The third volume in the Institute of Animal Health (IAH) Biology of Animal Infections Series, Bluetongue discusses one of the most economically important diseases of domesticated livestock. Affecting primarily sheep particularly the improved mutton and wool breeds, it is now endemic in Africa, India, the Middle and Far East, Australia and the Americas, and over the last six years has caused a series of outbreaks throughout the Mediterranean region and central Europe. Bluetongue represent a paradigm not only for the other orbiviruses (such as African horse sickness virus, which shares the same vector species) but also for other insect transmitted diseases, including those of humans.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
PREFACE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The Orbiviruses
The History of BT pre 1998
BT and climate change
Replication and biochemistry
BTV structure
Molecular epidemiology
BTV in the mammalian host
BTV in the insect host
Dynamics of BTV epidemiology
Clinical signs and pathology
BT on the Indian subcontinent
BTV in the Americas
BT in Australasia and China
BT in the Mediterranean basin
Diagnostics
Vaccines past and present
Control strategies
Conclusions
Glossary
Index
Key references