Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will consider a coordinated programme combining large-scale vaccination, Culicoides surveillance and systematic genetic monitoring, similar to measures adopted in France, to tackle the spread of bluetongue virus serotype 3.

This Government keeps its approach to bluetongue under continual review and considers scientific evidence and international experience when developing control policies. While the decision to vaccinate remains one for animal keepers, in consultation with their private vets, we have worked closely with sector representatives to encourage take-up, including supporting the Battle Bluetongue campaign to advocate for vaccination. The Animal and Plant Health Agency publishes a heat map of suspected and confirmed cases. The bluetongue virus genome is not prone to variation and recent genetic sequencing shows the virus in 2026 is very similar to the virus first detected in the Netherlands and later England in 2023.