Farming bodies unite to fight bluetongue threat

Twelve key farming groups have joined forces to combat bluetongue as the vector free-period ends and the threat of more cases, grows.

The organisations involved, which represent livestock farmers, livestock markets, meat processing, dairy processing, and the veterinary profession, all fully support the joint industry/DEFRA vaccination plan for bluetongue.

They will unite under the banner - the Joint campaign Against Bluetongue (JAB) and, in a joint statement said, that they were committed to working together on the campaign to achieve the mass vaccination of bluetongue susceptible animals in England.

"We recognise that a voluntary approach to vaccination has raised some eyebrows in some quarters but we are convinced that a voluntary, industry compulsory, mass vaccination programme is the right approach.

"We believe that the EU's bureaucratic rules for a compulsory vaccination programme requiring official supervision would have slowed down the process of vaccination, put individual farmers businesses at greater risk, and increased the likelihood that the virus would spread across the country before animals could be vaccinated," the statement read.