UNITED KINGDOM-VETS WARNING-
Vets have warned that stronger steps must be taken to protect Cumbria’s Herdwick sheep from disease.
The call for action came on the back of a report that again stressed the fact that regional breeds of sheep are vulnerable to disease because of a tendency to remain in one location.
Experts at The Sheep Trust said its findings highlighted an urgent need to protect many of the UK’s commercially-farmed native breeds, including the Herdwick.
The study of 16 regional breeds showed many are highly concentrated in one place, massively increasing their vulnerability to disease.
Herdwicks, for example, are thought to have come to the Lake District with the Vikings.
Today, 95 per cent of these sheep – some 50,000 animals – are still found within 23km of Coniston.
Unlike rare breeds, which enjoy legal protection, the law does not treat regional breeds as endangered.
The Sheep Trust, which is fighting to retain heritage breeds, used census data and geo-referencing to accurately map the distribution of a number of these breeds for the first time.
Trust vet Amanda Carson said: "Such an intense degree of localisation makes these breeds vulnerable to devastating losses from disease outbreaks such as foot and mouth (FMD) or bluetongue viruses (BTV).
"In 2001, I saw FMD destroy huge numbers of Herdwicks, South Country Cheviot and Rough Fell sheep in Cumbria and now we can see just how dangerous this was for the breed. We can also see that the same risk is there for other breeds."
Professor Dianna Bowles, the trust’s founder and chairman, said: "We are strongly recommending that new measures are put in place to protect these important genetic resources."
Last July – ahead of Cumbria becoming a bluetongue protection zone – keepers of rare and traditional breeds susceptible to the disease were warned to take action and vaccinate against it.