The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has urged all livestock and dairy farmers to vaccinate animals when the preventative injection becomes available in May to stop the spread of the disease, which is transmitted through the summer and autumn by a species of midge.

The east of England and East Midlands is a top priority for the jab, with the bluetongue protection zone running along the edge of Northamptonshire around Buckinghamshire.

However, farmers in the county have said they know little about the vaccine and are unsure how well it will combat the disease.

Caroline Fromant, a farmer from Harpole, who manages a herd of 500 cows, said: "We do wish it had been done sooner but some vets recommended we don't vaccinate the cows because there are so many strains of the virus, it's like flu, and we're not necessarily going to cover the right one.

"It's all pie in the sky and we've got to make the decision whether we go along. It's a complete guessing game and I really don't see how it's going to annihilate it."

According to the National Farmers' Union East Midlands, experts claim 80 per cent of the country's livestock must be vaccinated to have any chance of beating bluetongue.

Clive Lawrence, a farmer in East Haddon, had to close his farm shop for 12 months because of the risk of bluetongue disease.

He said: " I think we need to know a little more about it. I would inject them if I thought it was going to do the job but it's difficult to know what to do.

"I have a lot of baby calves and need to vaccinate them if it's really necessary.

"We didn't get bluetongue here but we might as well have done because I had to close my shop for 12 months."

NFU East Midlands will be running a series of information meetings about the vaccine from May 1 to 8 in Lincoln, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lutterworth.

More information is online at www.nfuonline.com.