IV International Conference on Bluetongue and related Orbiviruses

The “IV International Conference on Bluetongue and related Orbiviruses” (Rome, 5-7 November 2014) had the objective to update the European and international politicies for the surveillance and control of the bluetongue virus and related orbiviruses, and to identify the most recent and most effective strategies to fight this disease.

The Conference, official event of the Italian Semester of Presidency of the European Union, was held eleven years after the previous edition (Taormina 2003) and involved the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the European Commission, the Italian Ministry of Health and all the OIE Reference Laboratories for Bluetongue.

The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise organized the Conference in its role of OIE Reference Laboratory for Bluetongue and National Reference Centre for Exotic Animal Diseases (CESME).

During the three Conference days, policy makers, researchers, national competent authorities, representatives of the International Organizations and of the production world, exchanged opinions on the factors influencing emergence and the spread of bluetongue virus, on animal-vector-host-virus interaction and on the most recent developments of the laboratory diagnosis. The last day of the Conference, on the 7th of November, was dedicated to the surveillance and control of the disease and its impact on economics and world trade.

The over 300 experts and researchers coming from all over the world used the opportunity to held Regional meetings aiming at sharing the strategies, methods and tools used against Bluetongue and to strengthen the network of existing collaborations, essential to fight against diseases transmitted by orbiviruses, which spread very quickly and ignore geographic boundaries.