An extra laboratory is now being used for bluetongue testing in Britain, due to a continued rise in the number of samples being submitted for diagnosis.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratory at Weybridge in Surrey will be used for testing Bluetongue samples.

Prior to this, the Pirbright Institute, which is also located in Surrey, was the main laboratory used for diagnosing the viral disease.

In a statement, the APHA said extra testing capacity was needed due to “the unprecedented scale of the outbreak” in Britain this season.

The latest figures show that the BTV-3 strain of bluetongue has been confirmed on 630 farms in the UK during the 2026/27 season to date.

This includes 587 cases in England, 34 in Wales and nine in Scotland.

To date, no cases have been identified in NI during 2026/2027.

A bluetongue case is defined as a premises where at least one bluetongue positive animal has been diagnosed.

On suspected outbreak farms, the UK government cover the cost of testing for up to three animals, so accurate figures on the overall number of individual animals that have bluetongue are not available.

All cases diagnosed in Britain so far this season have been the BTV-3 strain, although APHA state that tests are still being undertaken for other bluetongue strains “where necessary”.

Despite the unprecedented rise in bluetongue, the APHA point out that both Pirbright and APHA Weybridge are continuing to test samples for other exotic notifiable diseases.