The National Farmers' Union (NFU) will now work with Defra and the Commission to make sure the changes to the legislation can be implemented in the UK as soon as possible.

This change will mean producers can make a commercial decision to vaccinate their animals without affecting Great Britain’s BT-free status.

At last week’s council meeting it was agreed that bluetongue (BT) preventative vaccination strategies will now be permitted in areas that are free of the disease and that farmers will be able to use ‘inactivated’ vaccines.

Great Britain was officially declared BT disease-free on 5 July this year, which meant producers were no longer able to protect their animals against the disease, as legislation does not allow vaccination within a free zone.

The last confirmed case of BT in this country was in 2008 which is due, largely, to a very successful campaign by farmers, government and vets to get rid of the disease from our shores.