Very serious consequences for farmers if bluetongue gets hold, says minister

He urged farmers to "report it urgently" and "isolate infected animals" if they see signs on infection.

Muir added: "The most important thing going forward here is we focus on the eradication of this."

"While this does not have an impact on public health and food safety, it has potentially very serious consequences on agri-food and has caused real anxiety within the farming community."

Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, the minister encouraged farmers to get their animals vaccinated, but said it's their "choice".

"If it was me, as a farmer, I would be taking that up, but it's for others to make their own decisions on individual circumstances around this," he said.

"The level of uptake has been relatively low," he said.

"It's largely farmers who have got very high value livestock who have decided to use the vaccine."