The Department of Agriculture has said that bluetongue diagnostic tests have been carried out on 2,588 samples taken from cattle and sheep since July as the virus has yet to show up south of the border.

Blood samples were drawn from 757 cattle and 180 sheep to test for bluetongue over the past six months.

A further 293 samples were taken from cattle carcases and 177 samples from sheep carcases that had been submitted to Regional Veterinary Laboratories for testing, while another 1,181 samples tested were taken from bulls in AI centres.

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“Meat and meat products are not a risk of bluetongue transmission and no carcases have been sampled in meat factories,” a Department spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“There has been no evidence of the presence of bluetongue virus following this testing to date.”

Detecting

Surveillance testing aimed at detecting whether bluetongue has entered the country remains ongoing, having been ramped up last month when cases were first suspected and then confirmed in Co Down.

Northern Ireland’s DAERA deputy chief vet David Kyle said last week that his department suspected that bluetongue is present outside of the temporary control zones established around suspected or confirmed cases.

“I would just caution the thinking that it is only in that small zone.

“I would be worried that it is elsewhere. It may already be in the south of Ireland, only they haven’t picked it up yet,” Kyle told an Ulster Farmers’ Union webinar.

“We do think it has spread further than the zones which exist at the moment, but we just haven’t detected it yet.”