Bluetongue is spreading fast across the South West, and it has now reached farms in our own North Devon community. This is no longer a precautionary issue — it’s an active local emergency, and we wanted to share our advice as quickly as possible.
What’s happening right now
- Torch Farm and Equine Vets, North Devon, saw their first suspected bluetongue case on 7 July. By 3 August — less than a month later — the practice had investigated 250 suspected cases.
- One local vet, Rebecca Cavill of Torch Farm Vets, has described treating three sheep on a North Devon farm on 28 July. By the following Sunday, 15 sheep were dead — out of a flock of just 200.
- GOV.UK confirmed nine new BTV-3 cases in Devon and Cornwall on 3 August alone.
- The disease is being described in the farming press as spreading “like wildfire” across the region.
Why this matters for your decision
There is no treatment for bluetongue — only supportive care and, in severe cases, welfare euthanasia. Vaccination is the only proven way to reduce the risk of severe disease and death.
Timing matters more than ever: sheep need around three weeks from a single dose to reach full protection; cattle need two doses three weeks apart, plus a further three weeks — around six weeks in total. With cases rising weekly in our area, every week’s delay is a week of exposure with no cover.
Our view
Siggs & Co advises from a risk-averse standpoint — informed partly by our own past experience of a toxoplasmosis outbreak where a vaccination decision made on cost grounds led to serious losses. On the current evidence, we believe vaccination is a sound, low-cost precaution for sheep flocks and for breeding and dairy cattle in or near the restricted zone, and a reasonable one for other cattle too.
We’ve prepared a full advisory note with the underlying data, cost estimates for sheep and cattle, and a practical checklist for getting vaccination organised: Click here to download
What to do now
If you haven’t already spoken to your vet about vaccination, please do so this week. Given rising demand, vaccine availability may tighten.
Get in touch. If you’d like to talk through what this means for your farm, contact James Siggs at Siggs & Co: james.siggs@siggsandco.com or visit siggsandco.com.