Farmers welcome vaccine go-ahead

Two million extra doses of vaccine have been delivered

Farmers in parts of Yorkshire have welcomed an extension of the Bluetongue protection zone to allow them to vaccinate stock against the virus.

Farmers in East and South Yorkshire were brought into the zone after the delivery of almost two million extra doses of the vaccine.

Animals can only be moved out of the zone if they are vaccinated, naturally immune or moving for slaughter.

Cattle, sheep, goats and deer can be infected by the insect-borne virus.

However, Bluetongue, which is transmitted by the Culicoides imicola midge, is not thought to pose a risk to humans.

The new vaccination area includes the whole of East Yorkshire, including the city of Hull and South Yorkshire, which comprises the metropolitan boroughs of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

John Gatenby, who farms at Rudston near Bridlington in East Yorkshire, said: "I am very glad it has come into place because the only control we have got is vaccination and as soon as we are in the protection zone we can vaccinate.

"It is our only real chance."