{"id":785300,"date":"2026-09-28T13:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785300\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:28:09","slug":"bluetongue-cases-confirmed-in-oxfordshire-and-isle-of-wight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785300\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluetongue cases confirmed in Oxfordshire and Isle of Wight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cases of a deadly virus affecting sheep and cattle have been confirmed in Oxfordshire and Isle of Wight, according to government figures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bluetongue has been found in more than 2,000 farm animals in the UK since July and nearly 1,200 potential cases are under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The virus, which causes fever and lameness, does not affect humans and is spread by midges rather than direct contact between animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fifty cases have already been confirmed in Dorset, with Oxfordshire and Isle of Wight joining the government list of affected areas in recent days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ckg4jn587kxo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">strain of bluetongue &#8211; serotype 3 (BTV-3)<\/a> &#8211; was first found in England in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is often fatal for sheep, and in cattle can be fatal, cause a drop in milk production, and lead to failed pregnancies and birth defects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The latest government figures show a single case of bluetongue in Oxfordshire and another on the Isle of Wight but Carisbrooke Farm Vets in Newport told the BBC that &#8220;multiple farms&#8221; had been affected on the island.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a social media post, it said: &#8220;The transmission risk remains very high &#8211; please remain vigilant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We will be running a meeting in October to update regarding the current situation and future plan of action.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cases of a deadly virus affecting sheep and cattle have been confirmed in Oxfordshire and Isle of Wight,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785300","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\/785300","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=785300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}