Farmers given bluetongue vaccine go-ahead

East Yorkshire livestock farmers were today given the go-ahead to vaccinate their animals against bluetongue disease.

The campaign to keep the worrying new disease out of the region will involved vaccinating 233,000 cattle and sheep.

Stocks of the vaccine will soon be arriving at East Yorkshire veterinary surgeries to get the long-awaited immunisation programme underway.

Farmers have been given the all-clear to start vaccinating because the area is being upgraded from a surveillance to a protection zone from Monday.

Beef farmer John Gatenby, of Littlethorpe Farm, Rudston, near Driffield, said: “Bluetongue is now the number one enemy of livestock farmers and it is up to everyone to take every possible step to keep it at bay.

“Vaccination is our only form of defence. It has worked in other countries were the disease has been more devastating.

“With outbreaks of bluetongue on two sides of the county, in Lincolnshire and Teesside, it is vital every animal susceptible to the disease is vaccinated.”

Farmers are being urged to order the vaccine – which costs about £1 for sheep and £2 a cow – from their vet now, in readiness for the campaign.