Bluetongue zone set to widen

A bluetongue protection zone is to be extended to cover Oswestry from Thursday, Defra said today.

The extension of the zone comes after more than two million additional doses of Bluetongue serotype 8 (BTV-8) vaccine were delivered.

The protection zones were set up immediately around infected premises.

The county was one of the last places to be left in the bluetongue surveillance zone in the UK, which is a wider protection zone of a radius of 150km around any infected premises.

It comes just weeks after the zone was extended to cover Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire, including north Shropshire, Shrewsbury and Atcham, south Shropshire and Bridgnorth.

A spokeswoman for Defra said: “Vaccination is only permitted within the protection zone. We will continue to expand the protection zone and to roll out vaccination to the free area as vaccine is delivered.

“The additional vaccine is available in the existing protection zone from today, along with any existing supplies of intervet vaccine.”