THE Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that five out of a batch of nine Bazadaise cattle, legally imported to a farm near Blackpool, Lancashire, have tested positive for the BTV1 strain of the bluetongue virus.

THE Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that five out of a batch of nine Bazadaise cattle, legally imported to a farm near Blackpool, Lancashire, have tested positive for the BTV1 strain of the bluetongue virus.

The animals were culled without compensation within 24 hours of positive laboratory results becoming available.

The cold temperatures experienced in recent days means that the risk of the virus spreading is low, but this incident must serve as a sharp reminder to all not to import stock from northern Europe when the risk from bluetongue remains so high.

A wide range of Scottish stakeholders have consistently urged all producers to maintain a ban on bringing in stock until such time as bluetongue disease is seen to be under control and Europe has put tougher movement restriction in place. That voluntary ban appears to be holding in Scotland.

However, a minority of farmers in England and Wales continues to import from high-risk areas without consideration for their fellow livestock producers.

NFU Scotland is urging all producers south of the border immediately to get behind the call made by NFU England and Wales for imports to be suspended.

Only last week, Defra confirmed that post-import testing had detected strain 8 of bluetongue (BTV8) in an imported sheep in Gloucestershire and in a further consignment of six imported cattle on a farm in Dorset. All of these animals came from France. Since August, almost 50 infected animals have been imported into England and Wales from France and Germany. These animals were all believed to be free of disease when leaving their country of birth but tested positive on arrival in Great Britain.

Commenting on the most recent incident in the Blackpool area, Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Rural affairs, said: "This kind of irresponsible action is bewildering. Whilst a small financial saving could be made by sourcing from high-risk areas, these savings are dwarfed by the potential economic impact of an outbreak both on the individual farmer and the industry as a whole. An outbreak of bluetongue could potentially cost Scotland £100m per annum."

Meanwhile, the Royal Highland Education Trust has been awarded a grant of almost £200,000 from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The grant will make a significant contribution to the trust's overall funding requirement of £500,000 over three years.

SNH has provided the money so that the trust can give first-hand experience of nature and countryside on farms and estates to at least 10,000 school pupils a year. The grant covers a three-year period from September 2009 to 2012.