The worst bluetongue season on record has been described as a major animal welfare crisis in Great Britain, putting farmers under severe emotional stress, MPs have been told.
Record number of cases
Bluetongue, a viral disease that affects sheep, cattle and goats, can cause fever, lesions, stillbirths and death. The tongue may turn blue and protrude from the mouth.
The virus originated in Africa and is transmitted via biting midges. It has spread to Europe over the past two decades, a development the World Organisation for Animal Health links to climate breakdown. The current strain, serotype 3 (BTV-3), was first found in England in 2023.
The 2025/26 season has been the worst on record, with 3,472 cases recorded in England, Scotland and Wales since July, more than five times the number in the past three seasons combined.
Farmers under severe pressure
Catherine McLaughlin, chief animal health and welfare adviser at the National Farmers Union, told MPs the outbreak had placed farmers across the country under severe emotional pressure and stress.
"Farmers have faced animal deaths, severe disease, reproductive losses, milk and growth losses, extra labour, veterinary costs, disruption to breeding and sales," she said. "The emotional turmoil this has placed on farms has been really stark and quite distressing to see."
She said the effect on animal fertility was likely to have long-lasting effects for farms, with many farms potentially seeing very low numbers of lambs in the spring, which would have a massive financial impact on those businesses.
Vets limited in what they can do
Dr Gwen Rees, president of the British Veterinary Association, said because there was no direct treatment for bluetongue, there was little that 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.
"Farmers and vets are always balancing risk and benefit and it's very difficult sometimes to invest in a just-in-case when your margins are extremely tight. The vaccine isn't a cheap vaccine."
Worst-hit areas
The worst-hit areas have been in the south-west, with Devon recording 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.
