Airborne spread of disease

Foot and mouth

We provide advice on the airborne spread of diseases, in conjunction with the Institute for Animal Health (IAH). We operate a facility on behalf of Defra to assess the possible airborne spread of the foot and mouth virus. Defra is responsible for reacting to outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and other potentially contagious diseases, such as fowl pest.

Bluetongue

During 2007, bluetongue was first confirmed in the UK. The disease, which affects cattle and sheep, is spread by midges infected with bluetongue virus. Their activity is highly dependent on environmental conditions, especially temperature, wind speed and precipitation. Research is currently taking place at the Met Office into how our sophisticated dispersion models, together with our weather forecasting models, can predict the potential spread of the disease.

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