Commenting on the announcement that four new cases of bluetongue have been identified, Liberal Democrat Countryside Spokesperson, Tim Farron said:

"These new cases will be extremely worrying for farmers, who are already anticipating another difficult summer.

"The Government has ordered over 22 million vaccine doses, but this may not be enough. There are 60 million livestock across the UK, and cattle have to be vaccinated twice.

"Production of the vaccine has already been slowed by the biosecurity failures at Pirbright, which also caused last year's outbreaks of foot-and-mouth.

"The Government must promise not to introduce a levy to cover the cost of disease outbreaks, as it would be a huge financial blow to an industry which is already struggling."