Farmer’s despair at TB testing delays
A Northamptonshire beef farmer who has been waiting for official TB test results since January has criticised ministry officials for the unnecessarily long delays that are damaging his farm business.
Philip Carter believes there is a lack of consistency in how TB testing guidelines are being interpreted, which could be leaving many other farmers facing similar lengthy movement restrictions and uncertainty.
His criticisms come after a suspect lesion was found in the lung of one of four animals sent for routine slaughter in January. The abattoir’s vet reported the problem and the farm was immediately placed under movement restrictions until test results came back.
“We were initially told by a ministry vet the results would be available in three weeks, which then changed to six weeks and has subsequently now been changed to 12 weeks,” said Mr Carter.
“Every time we contact the ministry we speak to different people, each offering conflicting views.”
A skin test carried out across the whole herd at the end of January came back negative for all animals, but despite this, the movement restrictions are still in place, preventing the farm from selling or buying any animals through the local Thrapston market as normal.
Animals can only be sold deadweight under licence directly to the abattoir and there are restrictions on buying stock. As a result, the herd has shrunk from 180 head to less than 100 and it is likely to be April before the official TB test results are available, said Mr Carter.
“We were advised that nothing was shown on the first culture tests, but they [ministry vets] have now decided that they want to carry out another culture and the results will not be known for at least six weeks.”
He hopes these further tests will be negative, which will allow restrictions to be lifted and the farm to rebuild the herd and trade normally again.
A spokesman for the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA), said: “We appreciate how stressful it can be for farmers awaiting the results of TB testing.
“Mycobacterium bovis is a slow-growing micro-organism and testing timescales can be difficult to predict accurately. AHVLA laboratories endeavour to return all testing results within 100 days.
“After receipt and processing at our laboratory, samples are incubated for a further 42 days and some may require further analysis. In other cases, negative samples may require reculturing after 42 days’ incubation, which can add an additional 42-49 days to the overall process.”
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