Government spending on bluetongue testing has collapsed at the very moment the disease is tearing through livestock farms across England, Wales and Scotland, newly released figures reveal.
Freedom of Information data obtained by Exmoor farmer James Wright shows that Defra's expenditure on BTV-3 testing plummeted from £900,000 in 2024/25 to just £230,000 in 2025/26. That is a £670,000 cut in a single year, delivered while the virus was establishing itself across Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and beyond.
The numbers are damning. More than 1,000 premises have now been confirmed with bluetongue this season. Over 2,500 suspected cases remain under investigation, with farmers and vets waiting up to three weeks for blood test results. The department has confirmed it holds no regional breakdown of testing spend whatsoever, meaning nobody in Whitehall can tell you how much is being spent to protect the worst hit counties in the country.
Wright, a beef and sheep farmer who has been pressing Defra for answers, put it plainly: "Farmers have a right to know why the money fell as the threat rose."
He is now calling on the government to restore surveillance funding in the hardest hit areas, publish proper regional spending figures and set out clearly what support livestock farmers can actually expect.
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