Two more cases of the potentially deadly bluetongue virus have been confirmed, after Scotland’s first-ever case was recorded earlier this week.
The Johnson family’s Kirkmabreck Farm, near Creetown in Dumfries and Galloway, said one of its lambs tested positive for the disease on Saturday.
Now Scotland’s chief veterinary officer Sheila Voas says two more cases have been confirmed at a neighbouring farm.
All three animals have been euthanised and both farms are under restrictions.
Voas said it was likely that infected midges carried the disease over from outbreaks in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man or the north of England.
She told BBC Scotland News the two new cases were “not particularly surprising”.
“If it is an infected plume of midges which have blown in from affected areas, either to the south or to the west, it would have been very unlikely it would just be one midge and one animal that was affected,” she said.
“What we do know is that having looked closely at the first farm, we haven’t found anything else, and we are hoping that will be the same with the second.”
Some 353 cases of bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV3) have been recorded in the UK in the 2026/27 season – most of them in the south-west of England.