There has been no decision made yet on whether new vaccines for Bluetongue should be approved for use in the UK, a government official has said.

Gordon Hickman from Defra said three different vaccines for the BTV-3 strain of the viral disease are currently being evaluated in the UK.

“The question for us is whether we are prepared to permit the use of an unauthorised vaccine, or whether we want to wait until there is more data and evidence,” he said.

For a new Bluetongue vaccine to be approved in the UK, Defra secretary Steve Reed must receive a recommendation from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

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“If the secretary of state decided there were grounds to permit that, then it would be down to each [devolved] administration to actually licence the use of that product in each country,” Mr Hickman explained.

There was a major outbreak of the BTV-3 across Europe last winter, including 126 cases confirmed on 73 premises in England. The last case in England was identified on 8 March 2024.

Animal health authorities across the UK are on high alert for new outbreaks, with the south-east of England at highest risk due to the possibility of infected midges blowing across from Europe.

“The first BTV-3 reported case this season was in the Netherlands on 17 June, but they are now getting 300 to 500 further cases per week,” said Rudolf Reichel from the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

“It is a similar situation in Germany. There are also cases in Belgium and Luxembourg, and there has been confirmed cases in France too,” he said.

Reichel said new vaccines for the BTV-3 strain are now being widely used in European countries and early results from studies indicate that it has been effective in both sheep and cattle.

He said vaccination has not stopped livestock picking up Bluetongue, but vaccinated animals recover faster from infections, and mortality rates are 'considerably lower'.

“Infections in vaccinated animals were much milder than the infections that happened in unvaccinated animals last autumn,” Reichel said.