The 44 cattle at the Clandeboye Estate farm in Bangor, Co Down, which have given an initial positive test result to bluetongue virus (BTV-3) will not be culled to help prevent spread of the disease, government officials in Northern Ireland (NI) have confirmed.

Providing an update to members of the Stormont agriculture committee on Thursday, NI deputy chief vet David Kyle said the farm was biosecure and the cattle don’t pose any threat to neighbouring herds.

Ultimately, the key issue is officials believe the cattle on the farm were infected by midges, with the fear now being that BTV-3 is established in that midge population.

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“At the moment - and given the information we have - there would be no intention to cull these animals [on the Bangor farm] as we don’t see any veterinary rationale, there is no epidemiological rationale, for killing these animals,” said Kyle.

He also confirmed that a flock of sheep on the farm, which is run separately to the dairy herd, has tested negative for BTV-3.

Extent

While any widespread cull has been ruled out, the department of agriculture in NI is still working to establish the extent of the issue.

Within a 20km control zone around the Bangor farm, there are approximately 700 cattle herds and 300 sheep flocks. Testing of livestock across the zone is to begin in the “next few days,” said Kyle.

He also confirmed that there are currently seven midge traps across NI monitoring activity. A trap was also put in place at Clandeboye Estate and despite colder weather, “we did find active midges, even this week,” said Kyle.

Work to track and predict plumes of midges coming in from bluetongue-infected areas of Britain suggest the flow has been intermittent, but with some high-density plumes in September and October.

During questions, the deputy chief vet was asked why the farm at Clandeboye has been hit, yet BTV-3 has not been found anywhere else.

“The modelling would show that [midge] plumes affect all along the eastern seaboard, from the south of Ireland all the way up. That’s what's leading us to think the disease could be a lot more prevalent out there than we are initially detecting,” he responded.