{"id":674041,"date":"2026-09-05T14:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674041\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T14:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:48:20","slug":"case-of-bluetongue-virus-confirmed-in-co-wexford-cattle-herd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674041\/","title":{"rendered":"Case of bluetongue virus confirmed in Co Wexford cattle herd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A CASE OF the bluetongue virus has been detected in a herd in Co Wexford, the Department of Agriculture has said.<\/p>\n<p>An unvaccinated 16-month-old heifer tested positive for bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) on post-mortem examination.<\/p>\n<p>The department said no clinical signs were detected before the animal\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>The case comes as instances of bluetongue in Britain continue to rise sharply \u2013 there have been around 800 cases in England, Scotland and Wales since the 2026\/27 season began in July.<\/p>\n<p>Control zones and trade restrictions were imposed in Northern Ireland late last year after several cases were detected.<\/p>\n<p>Bluetongue is a viral disease affecting cattle, sheep and other ruminants and is spread primarily by midges.<\/p>\n<p>It does not infect or affect humans and poses no risk to public health or food safety.<\/p>\n<p>The virus can only replicate when average daily temperatures exceed 12C, meaning the summer months represent the main risk period.<\/p>\n<p>The detection of a bluetongue case in Co Wexford <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/outbreak-bluetongue-confirmed-cattle-herd-wexford-6936970-Jan2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in January<\/a> prompted China to suspend the import of Irish beef.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said the latest case in Co Wexford was the first instance of \u201cBTV-3 detected in Ireland where infection occurred in 2026\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis indicates the importance of submitting unexplained mortalities to the department\u2019s regional veterinary laboratories,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe department would like to remind farmers that have not vaccinated that they should talk to their private veterinary practitioner in deciding whether vaccination is appropriate for their herd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is still worth considering vaccination against BTV-3 at this stage. Vaccination remains the most effective measure against the disease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBTV-3 is currently circulating extensively in Great Britain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are reports of multiple cases with a variety of clinical signs including mortalities in cattle and sheep, with cases remaining concentrated in southwest England and Wales. There also have been recent detections in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are currently three BTV3 vaccines approved for use in Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A CASE OF the bluetongue virus has been detected in a herd in Co Wexford, the Department of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[117000,9,10,148707,19440,71827,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,2451],"class_list":["post-674041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bluetongue","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-btv3","tag-cattle","tag-department-of-agriculture","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wexford"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117218987581374462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}