Farmers warned bluetongue disease likely to arrive in England this year

80% chance that potentially fatal virus in sheep and cattle will arrive from France, carried by midges that transmit the disease, say scientists

Bluetongue virus, a potentially fatal disease in sheep and cattle, is very likely to arrive in the England in 2016, according to the government's Animal and Plant Health Agency.

The virus, which does not affect humans or food, flared up in France in 2015 and the scientists estimate there is an 80% chance that the biting midges that transmit the disease will be blown across the channel this summer. Farms in southern England suffered the first ever outbreak in 2007 but the virus was quickly eradicated after a vaccination campaign.