00:00Are the NFU concerned that the warmer temperatures could potentially have an impact on cases of
00:06blue tongue? So the National Preparedness Council warned us last year that the UK is not well
00:15prepared for emerging diseases and as our weather patterns change we are going to be impacted by
00:21new diseases for our animals and our plants that we haven't come across before. There is a real
00:26live example of this happening today where a new strain of a virus called blue tongue which whilst
00:32not a concern for the human health it is a big concern especially for our sheep sector and what
00:38we've seen is an explosion of blue tongue virus appearing in North Devon and it is severely
00:45affecting our sheep blocks there causing lethargy, illness in the sheep and sometimes sadly death as
00:51well which is a real big concern because that disease is inevitably going to spread across
00:57the country. Now fortunately we're in a good place with blue tongue from the respect that we do have
01:02a vaccine available but as we look to the future as new viruses are going to and diseases are going
01:09to challenge both our plants and animals we need to make sure that we're in a place where we can
01:14tackle them punch them back as soon as they do arrive because we cannot allow these challenges to decimate
01:22our UK farming capability.
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