Fresh wave of bluetongue reported across England

New cases of bluetongue have been found in cattle and sheep in England, with 26 confirmed cases on farm since July 2025, marking the start of the 2025 to 2026 vector season.

Bluetongue has been detected in livestock in Cornwall, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Staffordshire in the past week alone.

Defra has warned that the risk of transmission via infected midges is currently considered to be “very high” in England and across most of Great Britain.

It notes that, with rising case numbers in Europe and the higher temperatures suitable for onward transmission, the risk of incursion of bluetongue virus into England has been raised to “medium” across all routes.

See also: Low vaccination rate leaves livestock exposed to bluetongue

Gordon Hickman, head of exotic disease policy at Defra, said the distribution of clinical cases currently show a hotspot in the home counties, with cases developing around Hampshire.

He added that very few cases had been reported in the south-west and eastern counties so far, but expressed concern that people were under-reporting.

Mr Hickman cautioned that the absence of reported cases does not necessarily mean that the virus is not also circulating there.

The current restriction zone covers all of England, with seperate restrictions in place in Scotland and Wales.

Industry tools

The AHDB has launched a bluetongue tool for farmers to determine the best dates to vaccinate breeding ewes and cows against bluetongue.

It has also launched a custom bluetongue cost calculator for sheep, beef and dairy.

Zoe Lloyd, animal health and welfare scientist at the AHDB, said: “This is designed to provide a figure for how much it would cost you to vaccinate your stock and then you can compare with an estimation for how much it would cost if you saw bluetongue on your farm.

“This takes into consideration mortality, fertility and production losses based off what has been seen so far in the UK and Europe.”

Changes to movement restrictions

Some restrictions are due to be eased from 21 September as temperatures drop and midge activity decreases.

Livestock vaccinated for Bluetongue Virus Serotype 3 (BTV-3) will be able to move into Wales under a general licence.

However, non-vaccinated animals will still generally need a negative pre-movement test and a specific licence.

Animals going direct to slaughter in Wales may still move under a general licence, and after 21 September abattoirs will no longer need to be designated.

Restrictions for livestock movements to Scotland will also ease later this month, with animals not intended for breeding able to move to Scotland without pre-movement testing.

Estevao Simoes, veterinary adviser for the Scottish government, said: “The biggest transmission risk pathway, which is midges, becomes officially low risk in Scotland from 21 September.”

He added that breeding animals remain a risk and will still need testing, except for cattle which have been administered with the Bultavo-3 vaccine.

Mr Simoes said: “We know that wind can blow midges across large bodies of water, which is how bluetongue got here in the first instance.

“But, now that it has established, we believe that all of the new cases this year have been due to mechanisms of overwintering, which could be an infected pregnant female giving birth to an infected calf or lamb, which then resumes the cycle.”

He added: “The true levels of infection may be higher than what is officially reported.”

Prevention better than cure

Lockerbie-based dairy farmer Gareth Owen determined after discussions with vets that vaccination was the right route to go down on his own farm.

“We have vaccinated everything over three months old.

“We thought we are better to get ahead of it now, as the risk was midges would start to move up the country.”

Mr Owen said they saw no drop off in milk yields following vaccination, and insemination rates stayed the same.

“Prevention is better than cure and it’s also about protecting your margins,” he added.