The Dutch agricultural export industry faces a major decline in profits and revenues as the Agriculture Ministry effected a ban on ruminant exportation. Officials from the Agriculture Ministry halted exporters of ruminants like sheep, goats, and cows after outbreaks of bluetongue were reported. Cees Veerman, the Agriculture Minister, made the move to broaden the ban to all living ruminants nationwide, including their embryos. The Ministry had expressed its intent to prolong the ban for months.



This is a fatal blow to Dutch agriculture since sheep exporters form the backbone of the industry. Bluetongue, a viral insect-borne disease, is usually transmitted by insects called midges. Midges are small two-winged insects which carry strains of the reovirus Orbivirus. Bluetongue is non-contagious and not fatal to humans and most ruminants like cattle or goat. However, it is fatal and potentially deadly to sheep.

Known to thrive in the warm weathers of the Mediterranean, it is unclear how the bluetongue virus managed to infiltrate the Netherlands. Marjet Heins, an Agriculture Ministry spokesperson, announced that while investigations are still underway, affected farms will be quarantined. Since the 13 farms infected with bluetongue are located in the Kerkade area, a 100 km radius protection zone is placed around it. Inside this protection zone, it is mandated to lock ruminants in barns and the mandatory use of insecticides is effected. In addition, all ruminant deliveries and transports are forbidden within an additional 20 km radius.

Dutch farmers and sheep exporters have been clamoring for the lifting of the ban. Agricultural association Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie Nederland or LTO heads the pack. According to Jacques Luiten, LTO spokesperson, the ban is highly debilitating for Dutch livestock exporters and the agricultural industry. The LTO condemned the measures taken by the Ministry as excessive and uncalled for. The LTO is currently petitioning to isolate the ban in the southmost part of the country where there is a concentration of the bluetongue epidemic.

However, the bluetongue epidemic is not isolated to the Netherlands. The first cases of the bluetongue epidemic were reportedly from the province of Limburg, a Dutch area between Belgian and German territories. It is possible that ruminants from the nearby Belgian and German locales are also infected. As such, the LTO also proposes to unite agricultural efforts with countries like Belgium or Germany to prevent the spread of the epidemic. The lack of livestock export also contributed to a drop in the economic potential of the entire agriculture sector of Northern Europe.

In a bid to prevent and stagger the epidemic, Belgian, German, and Dutch representatives conducted a series of meetings and conferences with the European Union. Known agenda of the bluetongue conferences are epidemic investigation, quarantine procedures, and agricultural assistance for ruminant exporters. The EU expects the agricultural ministries of both Northern European nations to adopt the restrictions imposed by the Netherlands to their own bluetongue-affected regions. Whether the Belgian and German agriculture sectors and ruminant exporters will be happy about these restrictions or not is a question that begs to be answered.