{"id":749433,"date":"2026-08-25T17:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749433\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:12:10","slug":"cases-of-bluetongue-virus-confirmed-in-shropshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/749433\/","title":{"rendered":"Cases of bluetongue virus confirmed in Shropshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four cases of the potentially fatal to cattle bluetongue virus have been confirmed in Shropshire. <\/p>\n

They are part of the latest figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which bring the total cases in the UK in 2026-27 to 618., external<\/a><\/p>\n

The locations of the four premises affected in Shropshire have not been publicly revealed. <\/p>\n

Defra has also not disclosed if the cases are in sheep or cattle but a spokesperson said, of the 25 new cases across the country in the latest update, 18 involved sheep, six cattle and one at a mixed farm affecting both.<\/p>\n

Bluetongue is an insect-borne viral disease affecting sheep and cattle among other animals, mainly spread by biting midges, which thrive in long, hot summers like the one the UK is experiencing.<\/p>\n

It is not dangerous to humans and poses no risk.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a Shropshire farmer said he was concerned about the outbreak<\/a> due to a shortage of vaccines used to protect the animals. <\/p>\n

Of the current 618 cases, 580 are in England, with 29 in Wales and nine in Scotland, meanwhile Northern Ireland are yet to have a confirmed case. <\/p>\n

Defra said it was “working closely with the industry and is putting processes in for additional vaccine supplies”.<\/p>\n

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will hold a meeting in Shrewsbury on Wednesday evening, as part of a country-wide series, to offer an update on the virus to the county’s farmers.<\/p>\n

Industry experts with advice on the signs of the virus and updates around vaccinations are expected to attend the meeting at Shrewsbury Auction Centre. <\/p>\n

According to the latest government figures there are currently 2,236 potential cases of bluetongue under investigation in Great Britain. <\/p>\n

They are all at sites that have reported suspicious clinical signs. <\/p>\n

Defra added that the total number of affected animals is likely to be significantly higher than reported as testing did not always include every animal on a premises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four cases of the potentially fatal to cattle bluetongue virus have been confirmed in Shropshire. They are part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-749433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}