Hundreds of cattle will be on parade at Staffordshire County Show next week despite initial fears blue tongue disease might stop many livestock classes going ahead.

More than 300 cattle, 500 sheep and 100 goats and pigs, all from within the precautionary blue tongue surveillance zone, have been entered for the show at the County Showground in Stafford on Wednesday and Thursday.

Organisers Staffordshire and Birmingham Agricultural Society have worked closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure the show will be in line with current restrictions.

Following last September’s outbreak in East Anglia, and the spread to south and south-east England, a protection zone has been set up to prevent movement of livestock in the affected areas.

The surveillance zone is a precaution which monitors movement in surrounding areas.

Society chief executive Richard Williams said exhibitors had been assured that, if there was an outbreak of the disease before the show, all entrance and stall fees would automatically be refunded. “Only livestock from within the existing surveillance zone are permitted and we have been liaising on a daily basis with DEFRA,”he said. “We have notified every exhibitor in our cattle, sheep and goat sections of the current situation and, hopefully, there will be no outbreaks of the disease in the surveillance zone.”