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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many additional surveillance sites are being introduced under the Vector-Borne RADAR programme following the detection of West Nile Virus fragments.

The Vector-Borne RADAR programme includes a project run by UKHSA’s Medical Entomology and Zoonoses Ecology team undertaking country-wide surveillance for mosquitos in 2025. Pools of any female mosquitos collected will be tested for several potential mosquito-vectored viruses. The sites being surveilled are suitable mosquito breeding sites. In 2024, mosquito traps were successfully deployed in almost all 50 km² grids across England, collecting nearly 1,000 individuals across 71 sites.