120,000 cattle have been slaughtered because of bovine TB in past five years

More than 120,000 cattle have been slaughtered because of bovine TB in the past five years.

DEFRA’s 2006 provisional statistics also show that almost 7000 herds in Great Britain were under movement restrictions by the end of December. This compares with 1603 in 1996. 

The West of England is the worst affected region with nearly 3000 herds under restriction and Devon the worst affected county with 926 herds restricted.

The figures also reveal that almost 23,000 cattle were removed from the national herd during 2006.

However, the statistics also show a 6% fall in the number of new herd incidents despite a 12.8% increase in the number of cattle tested. The number of cattle tested rose from 4,849,796 in 2005 to 5,470,070 last year.

Have your say on the issue of bovine TB on our blog Food For Thought.