14 May 2025
Regulations to be introduced this month will reduce validity period for pre-movement testing samples by more than half, despite officials extending existing exemptions for several more weeks.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Vets and farmers have been warned to plan ahead after moves to more than halve the validity period for pre-movement bluetongue tests in England were outlined.
Under the new rules, samples taken on or after 27 May will only be valid for 10 days instead of the current 21-day limit which will remain in force until 26 May.
An APHA update issued yesterday (13 May) said: “You must time your sampling so that the samples are still valid on the planned move date”, but did not explain the reasons for the change.
However, Defra officials said this afternoon that the validity period had been extended during the winter and spring to maintain “proportionate” controls and reduce the burden on farmers.
The department said the extension was being scrapped “in line with anticipated changes in the likelihood of BTV transmission occurring”.
The move also came only a day after plans to extend pre-movement test exemptions for up to another month were announced.
The exemption, which has been in place since late March and was due to expire tomorrow, applies to non-breeding animals with the current restricted zone that are more than 60 days old.
Officials say the rules will now apply until 12 June unless the risk of transmission increases. Movement licence requirements remain in force.
Since the present outbreak began last August, a total of 260 BTV-3 cases have been reported in England and Wales, plus one incident of the BTV-12 strain.
However, no new cases have been reported since 24 April and the UK is still considered to be in a low risk period for vector transmission when midges are active but unlikely to be infectious.
