UK: Bluetongue: 'the Worst is Over' Thanks to Farmers
UK - A 90 per cent plus take up in vaccination against the bluetongue, virus which can prove fatal to livestock has spared the county’s sheep and cattle from infection.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has praised farmers in Kent and experts believe the worst is over.
Last year the airborne virus proved a major headache for farmers with quarantine zones established and lack of movement allowed for winter grazing.
But at the start of the summer a vaccination programme was introduced by Government agency DEFRA. Around 98 per cent of Kent farms which saw in infection took up the offer with the figure for farms as a whole in excess of 90 per cent.