Bovine TB rates rise for third year in a row
DEFRA figures show bovine tuberculosis cases have risen for the third successive year across the UK.
The statistics show 24,685 cattle were slaughtered to August this year due to bovine TB – a 5.1% rise on 2011.
In 2011, 23,477 cattle were slaughtered during the same reporting and 21,390 in 2010.
The statistics also reveal 3,353 new herd incidents during the period January to August 2012, compared to 3,312 for the same period in 2011.
However, the number of tests on officially TB-free herds was 49,714 in January to August 2012, compared to 41,267 in January to August 2011.
A total of 7,286 herds were placed under movement restrictions because of a TB incident at some time during the period January to July 2012.
In total, 91,288 cattle have been slaughtered in the UK due to TB since January 2010 until August this year.
Controlling the disease in cattle cost the UK taxpayer £91m last year, according to DEFRA. It has forecast that these costs will rise to £1bn over the next decade unless action is taken.
A proposed cull of badgers, part of DEFRA’s Bovine TB Eradication Programme for England, has been postponed until next summer after badger population estimates were found to have underestimated the animal’s numbers.
“Vaccination of badgers is not a practical solution by itself. Cattle vaccination is not possible due to current EU regulation. Even if this policy is introduced, which looks a long way off, it might reduce the size of spread of a breakdown but it will not prevent the disease.”
John Royle, NFU chief farm policy adviser
The NFU said the figures showed a gradual trend of increasing cases of bovine TB despite the “pain of additional cattle measures farmers have had to go through”.
John Royle, NFU chief farm policy adviser, said: “There has been more animal testing, greater use of the gamma blood test, removal of some pre-movement testing exemptions and the further extension of surveillance areas of testing from 1 January 2013, greater awareness of biosecurity and three years of vaccinating badgers. But these measures clearly are not getting on top of the disease.
“An important part of DEFRA’s bTB eradication package is a badger cull, which is still not available to farmers, who are desperate to find a solution. Farmers cannot get free of bovine TB unless the disease is controlled in wildlife.
“Vaccination of badgers is not a practical solution by itself. Cattle vaccination is not possible due to current EU regulation. Even if this policy is introduced, which looks a long way off, it might reduce the size and severity of a breakdown but it will not prevent the disease entering the herd.”
But Michael Ritchie, spokesman for Rethink Bovine TB, described the statistics as a “small change in a catastrophic figure”.
“We need to reduce the number of TB cases to zero and the only hope of doing that is for DEFRA to get its act together so that we can vaccinate cattle,” he said.
“Farmers cannot go on allowing DEFRA and the EU to seize and slaughter their cattle when we already have a BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) cattle vaccination and a DIVA (Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) test ready to licence.”