The recent emergence of Bluetongue virus serotype 8 and Schmallenberg disease in European cattle illustrates the increasing risks of disease emergence due to global changes. To early detect emergence of unforeseen diseases in cattle, syndromic surveillance based on data collected routinely, used as non specific indicators of health status is of interest. The objective of this study was to evaluate if and how reproduction data in dairy cattle can be used for surveillance. The bluetongue outbreak in France in 2007 was used as a case model. Five indicators targeting different effects of disease on reproduction were defined. The capacity of statistical models for temporal series to early detect bluetongue emergence was evaluated in districts with different levels of prevalence of bluetongue. The criteria for evaluation were: ability to detect a significant increase in the district during the bluetongue outbreak, precocity of the detection (in comparison to notification of clinical cases), number of false alarms (i.e. detection of an increase in the indicator in a time-period without bluetongue). Four indicators based on frequency of return-to-service and duration of gestation showed a detectable increase during the outbreak. The occurrence of early calvings was the most sensitive. The time between the detection based on reproduction data and the first case notification varied from -15 to 60 days depending on the threshold to trigger an alarm. The proposed surveillance method based on reproduction data was effective to early detect of bluetongue, with a limited number of false alarms and is of potential interest for surveillance of diseases with an effect on reproduction.