Online map of bovine TB breakdowns to be published in Wales

The locations of TB-infected farms in Wales are to be published online, the Welsh government has confirmed.

However, the names and addresses of farmers with TB breakdowns will not be published to protect farmers and their families from harassment and intimidation.

In a written statement published on Friday (18 September), Wales’ deputy farm minister Rebecca Evans said the publication of the map would provide farmers near TB breakdowns to take precautions to protect their herds from the spread of the disease.

See also: More frequent testing needed to wipe out bovine TB

“It will also raise awareness of the risk of purchasing animals with hidden infection,” added the minister.

“While there has been an improvement in the disease situation over the past five years, TB continues to provide significant socioeconomic costs to farmers, the wider farming industry and to keepers of other animals such as camelids.”
Rebecca Evans

The decision to publish the online map follows a consultation held earlier this year. The interactive online maps for Wales are due to go live around November.

Ms Evans said she had taken the decision to publish the maps to support individual farm businesses and help them minimise the risk of TB infections.

“While there has been an improvement in the disease situation over the past five years, TB continues to provide significant socioeconomic costs to farmers, the wider farming industry and to keepers of other animals such as camelids,” she added.

Out of 33 of those who responded, 28 agreed a map of TB breakdowns should be published online.

Most felt the move would allow farmers to take informed decisions on the way they managed grazing, by ensuring cattle grazed in fields away from any infected neighbouring farm.

It would also allow farmers operating in areas with TB breakdowns to consider fencing watercourses and double-fencing boundaries to prevent nose-to-nose contact between cattle.

One of the respondents to the consultation, the South East Wales Regional TB Eradication Delivery Board, believed sharing information was “an essential part of managing any disease”.

Professor Sheila Crispin, a vet, said the current lack of information increased anxiety and led to “poorly informed speculation”.

The Tenant Farmers’ Association Cymru also supported the move. It said cattle farmers would find the information helpful for managing livestock movements and grazing patterns on their holdings.

But some farmers believe the map should only be made accessible to legitimate farmers and not the public at large. For example, only those with a holding number could be granted access to the information.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) was one group to make that call. The FUW stressed that the provision of TB breakdown information “should only be available to farmers and not to the general public”.

It added it was keen that TB breakdown information was restricted solely to farms in the contiguous zone. 

The Welsh government said the map would need to be compatible with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The decision to publish the information is the latest in a series of moves by the Cardiff-based administration to combat bovine TB.

The annual testing of all cattle, zero tolerance on overdue tests and tougher cattle movement restrictions were introduced in Wales in 2008. Since then, cases of bovine TB have largely been on a downward curve (see table below).

In England, only cattle in “high-risk” areas such as the South West are tested on an annual basis, with herds considered to be in low-risk areas tested every four years.

Defra’s 25-year TB eradication programme seeks to use “every tool in the box”, including tackling the reservoir of disease in wildlife with a cull of badgers. The Welsh government, however, is vaccinating badgers against TB.

In June, Defra launched an interactive map called Information bTB (ibTB) showing the locations of TB breakdowns, including outbreaks resolved in the past five years in England.

Farmers in England and Wales were paid nearly £42m in compensation last year for animals slaughtered because of bovine TB, according to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).