Bluetongue is ruled out

Tests for the bluetongue virus at a farm in Shropshire have proved negative, Defra said this afternoon.

Government vets were called in over suspected outbreaks in the north of the county and in Greater Manchester.

If the results had been positive it would have meant restrictions for farmers across north-west England, much of Wales and around the Bristol Channel.

Government vets had spent the weekend at a farm near Ellesmere.

John Brown, who farms at Bagley, near Ellesmere, i only a few miles from the suspected outbreak, said any new restrictions would have hit farmers hard.

"At the moment I can't move my cattle from here to Oswestry but other cattle from infected countries are hauled hundreds of miles across Britain. It just doesn't make sense," said Mr Brown

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson said Defra had to act.

"We could be about to repeat the whole nightmare of foot and mouth. They have really got to get their act together and part of that has got to be vaccination," he said.