Britain's record bluetongue season called 'a major animal welfare crisis' by veterinary association chief

The president of the British Veterinary Association has described Great Britain's record-breaking bluetongue season as a major animal welfare crisis. She told MPs that the surge in cases has put farmers under severe emotional pressure and stress.

Bluetongue is a viral disease that affects sheep, cattle and goats. It can cause fever, lesions, stillbirths and death, and the tongue of an affected animal may turn blue and protrude from the mouth.

The virus, which originated in Africa and is transmitted by biting midges, has spread across Europe over the past two decades, a development the World Organisation for Animal Health links to climate breakdown. The strain now affecting livestock, serotype 3 (BTV-3), was first found in England in 2023.

The 2025-26 season has been the worst on record. There have been 3,472 cases recorded in England, Scotland and Wales since July, more than five times the past three seasons combined.

Catherine McLaughlin, the National Farmers Union's chief animal health and welfare adviser, told MPs that this year's outbreak had placed farmers across the country under 'severe emotional pressure and stress'. She said farmers had faced animal deaths, severe disease, reproductive losses, milk and growth losses, extra labour, veterinary costs, and disruption to breeding and sales.

McLaughlin said the effect of the virus on animal fertility was likely to have long-lasting effects for farms. She said there could be very low numbers of lambs in the spring on many farms, which would have a massive financial impact.

Dr Gwen Rees, the BVA president, said that because there is no direct treatment for bluetongue, there was little vets could do. 'You can support those animals and hope they get through it, but that's a very difficult position to be in for a vet and for a farmer,' she said. 'It was a major animal welfare crisis.'

Rees told MPs that the cost of vaccination and uncertainty about the risk of infection had deterred some farmers from immunising their animals before the outbreak took hold. She said the vaccine is not cheap and, with margins extremely tight, investing 'just in case' is difficult.

The worst-hit areas have been in the south-west. Devon has recorded 1,291 cases, Somerset 373 and Cornwall 352.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs defines a case as a premises where at least one animal with bluetongue is present, so the total number of animals affected is likely to be higher than the number of reported cases.