Title

Akabane epizootics in New South Wales: evidence for long-distance dispersal of the biting midge Culicoides brevitarsis.

Authors

MURRAY, M. D.

Abstract

SUMMARY: In 1983 an outbreak of Akabane disease occurred in calves in New South Wales between Coolah and Dunedoo at the foothills of the Liverpool Range, from Molong to Oberon in the Blue Mountains and in the Bylong Valley. These areas, at the time of infection of the dams, were in a drought and conditions were unsuitable for the multiplication of C. brevitarsis. In late March meteorological phenomena developed producing air movements favourable for transporting infected midges from the Hunter Valley. A re-examination of the data from the epizootics of 1974 and 1955 showed that similar weather systems had developed. It is possible that the source of infected midges in these epizootics was also the Hunter Valley.

Publication

Australian Veterinary Journal, 1987, Vol 64, Issue 10, p305

ISSN

0005-0423

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1111/j.1751-0813.1987.tb07332.x