The improper movement of cattle from the Netherlands to the Republic of Ireland has left two Dutch animals stranded at Stranraer.

The Union says legislation not only needs to be tightened but also properly enforced by all member states.

A shipment of six Dutch dairy heifers had legally transited Scotland on route to Southern Ireland. However, the discovery at the port of Larne in Northern Ireland that two of them had been pregnant before being vaccinated against bluetongue, breached the European requirements on movements between Europe's BTV8 zone - which includes the Netherlands - and a BTV-free zone like Ireland.

Consequently two animals were refused entry to Ireland and shipped back on the ferry to Stranraer.

The Union says it understands the Scottish Government is urgently considering its options as to how it deals with the cattle involved.

NFU Scotland vice-president Nigel Miller said: “This is an absolute mess and a desperately disappointing state of affairs given Scotland's sterling efforts to keep the disease out the country.

"We have urged the Scottish Government to send these animals back from whence they came and a clear message delivered to the authorities in Holland.

"The fact of the matter is that if the Dutch had been properly policing movements, then these two animals would never have left Holland in the first place.

“If member states like the Netherlands, with a history of bluetongue disease, are failing to implement existing bluetongue movement controls then it underlines the urgent need for stronger European regulations that will protect a country like Scotland from getting this devastating disease.”

Meanwhile the Ulster Farmers' Union has strongly criticised a small number of people in the industry who are importing sheep.

This it says is despite the ongoing campaign to keep Northern Ireland a bluetongue free region.

The Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew confirmed that about 1,600 sheep had recently been imported into Northern Ireland from bluetongue protection zones in Britain.

UFU president Graham Furey said the importers were putting the entire industry at risk.