Sep 11, 2026 · 35 min · 11 segments
As the team this week are joined by Torch Farm Vets' own Rebecca Cavill, hear more about what it has been like on the ground in the SW of the country, as they were amongst the first hit in the current…
Rebecca CavillGuestNeilHostSeananHostJamesHostBenHostThere we go.
Technology is great.
So this was published on Monday this week, and this based on a request really from industry to have a better early warning system to what is actually currently going on with blue tongue cases because the testing backlog was becoming extremely large.
Let's see, I think currently there are still over two and a half thousand tests collected, submitted or disease alerted, but no result given back yet.
There's also been maybe a myth that needs to be bust on that, that perhaps it's not testing capacity that's the problem, but administrative capacity once test results are known.
But that will probably resolve itself as well in the next few weeks.
What this map shows, it's a heat map.
Ignore the fact that a heat map, you would expect it to maybe go warm and less warm.
It's blue because red colouring had already been used to identify confirmed blue tongue cases on holdings.
We've seen one or two challenges on social media.
Why is it vague? It doesn't clearly identify premises.
That's because the cases are currently suspect and it would be impossible due to GDPR regulations to identify a holding that has not been confirmed as having a notifiable disease.
So again, that might unravel and I imagine the red triangles will grow as time moves on.
But I think this is a great opportunity map to show for those that are still unsure where the disease is and unclear whether they should vaccinate or not.
You know, basically the whole of the Western country there is covered and the disease is moving, you know, east, I would say, at a relatively high speed.
And there's some light blue areas there just in West Yorkshire, which if you look on Gov.uk, you will see there are a rising number of cases in that area.
So it's there to help.
We could say you can play with a legend on that map and remove the heat map part and just see the cases and vice versa.
So it's a new tool.
Have any of our guests got any questions on that map?
Just to be clear, Neil, A, there's folks who are listening and not watching.
So where do you find this map?
And for further clarity then, so there are some very light blue clouds around.
There we go.
Technology is great.
So this was published on Monday this week, and this based on a request really from industry to have a better early warning system to what is actually currently going on with blue tongue cases because the testing backlog was becoming extremely large.
Let's see, I think currently there are still over two and a half thousand tests collected, submitted or disease alerted, but no result given back yet.
There's also been maybe a myth that needs to be bust on that, that perhaps it's not testing capacity that's the problem, but administrative capacity once test results are known.
But that will probably resolve itself as well in the next few weeks.
What this map shows, it's a heat map.
Ignore the fact that a heat map, you would expect it to maybe go warm and less warm.
It's blue because red colouring had already been used to identify confirmed blue tongue cases on holdings.
We've seen one or two challenges on social media.
Why is it vague? It doesn't clearly identify premises.
That's because the cases are currently suspect and it would be impossible due to GDPR regulations to identify a holding that has not been confirmed as having a notifiable disease.
So again, that might unravel and I imagine the red triangles will grow as time moves on.
But I think this is a great opportunity map to show for those that are still unsure where the disease is and unclear whether they should vaccinate or not.
You know, basically the whole of the Western country there is covered and the disease is moving, you know, east, I would say, at a relatively high speed.
And there's some light blue areas there just in West Yorkshire, which if you look on Gov.uk, you will see there are a rising number of cases in that area.
So it's there to help.
We could say you can play with a legend on that map and remove the heat map part and just see the cases and vice versa.
So it's a new tool.
Have any of our guests got any questions on that map?
Just to be clear, Neil, A, there's folks who are listening and not watching.
So where do you find this map?
And for further clarity then, so there are some very light blue clouds around.
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