{"id":261858,"date":"2026-01-24T16:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261858\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T16:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T16:03:09","slug":"bluetongue-virus-detected-in-co-wexford-herd-minister-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/261858\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluetongue virus detected in Co Wexford herd, minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An outbreak of bluetongue has been detected in County Wexford, the Minister for Agriculture has said.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, Martin Heydon confirmed that the disease which affects livestock including cattle and sheep as well as goats, deer and llamas, had been found in a herd.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Heydon said: \u201cThis is unwelcome news but unfortunately, it is not surprising, given the spread of this virus across Europe, Great Britain, and recently Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to emphasise that bluetongue cannot infect people and does not pose any food safety or human health issue.<\/p>\n<p>    My department has been actively negotiating revisions to many trade certs for third countries so that the impact of any outbreak would be minimised, and that work will continue after this news<\/p>\n<p>            Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis finding arose from the routine ongoing surveillance my department has been carrying out, so that we can find the disease as early as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also extended his sympathies to the affected farmer.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said the virus is unlikely to spread widely at the moment, because of low temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>It is carried by infected midges and does not replicate when temperatures are below 12C.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Heydon said the outbreak will have an impact on exports of cattle and sheep \u201cwith additional costs and logistical issues required in order to comply with the rules set by the countries of destination\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said there are no implications for meat and dairy exports to the EU, UK, and most other international markets.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cMy department has been actively negotiating revisions to many trade certificates for third countries so that the impact of any outbreak would be minimised, and that work will continue after this news.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A vaccine for the virus is being introduced in Ireland this year.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Heydon announced in December after suspected cases were found on four farms in County Down.<\/p>\n<p>He described it as a \u201cvaluable tool\u201d to protect cattle and sheep against the disease.<\/p>\n<p>Adding that the \u201chigh risk\u201d period will be this summer, he said farmers could consider whether to use the vaccine this spring to \u201cprotect their stock in advance of any midge-borne virus spread in the warmer months\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/nigerian-irish-councillor-spat-at-during-racial-attack-in-navan-1857213.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/nigerian-irish-councillor-spat-at-during-racial-attack-in-navan-1857213.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/yemi-adenuga-e1769255427104.jpg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"Nigerian-Irish Councillor Spat At During Racial Attack In Navan\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian-Irish councillor spat at during racial attack in Navan<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the Irish Farmers\u2019 Association said the detection of bluetongue in Wexford is \u201cvery disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>President Francie Gorman said: \u201cThe highest level of vigilance is needed across the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that \u201crestrictions only apply on the farm in question\u201d, which means \u201cfarmers can continue to market animals within the country while exercising the maximum level of vigilance\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An outbreak of bluetongue has been detected in County Wexford, the Minister for Agriculture has said. On Saturday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-261858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}