Great Britain's bluetongue season worst on record, MPs told amid animal welfare crisis

Great Britain's 2025–26 bluetongue season is the worst on record, according to farming and veterinary representatives who briefed MPs. They described a major animal welfare crisis that has placed farmers under heavy emotional strain.

Bluetongue is a viral disease affecting sheep, cattle and goats. It can cause fever, lesions, stillbirths and death, and the tongue may turn blue and protrude from the mouth. The virus originated in Africa and is spread by biting midges. Over the past two decades it has reached Europe, a trend the World Organisation for Animal Health links to climate breakdown. The strain now circulating, serotype 3 (BTV-3), was first found in England in 2023.

Case numbers

Since July, 3,472 cases have been recorded across England, Scotland and Wales, more than five times the total of the previous three seasons combined. The south-west has been hit hardest: Devon has recorded 1,291 cases, Somerset 373 and Cornwall 352. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs counts a case as a premises with at least one infected animal, so the number of affected animals is probably higher.

Impact on farms

Catherine McLaughlin, chief animal health and welfare adviser at the National Farmers Union, said farmers had faced animal deaths, severe disease, reproductive losses, lost milk production and growth, extra labour and veterinary costs, and disruption to breeding and sales. She said the effect on fertility could be long-lasting, with many farms possibly having very few lambs in spring, which would have a major financial impact.

Dr Gwen Rees, president of the British Veterinary Association, said there is no direct treatment, so vets can do little beyond supporting animals. She added that vaccination costs and uncertainty over infection risk had deterred some farmers from immunising their animals before the outbreak took hold.