Scotland’s TB-free status ‘not threatened by outbreak’

Scotland’s prized TB-free status will not be jeopardised by a serious outbreak of the disease on a dairy farm in West Lothian, which led to the slaughter of 60 animals this week.
The outbreak at Ballincrieff farm near Bathgate has been described as one of the worst in the country for many years and follows another outbreak in Scotland in January.
However, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said the official rules governing TB-free status, which was granted to Scotland in September 2009, were fixed by a formula and allowed for a number of outbreaks in a given period.
The spokesman said: “EU Directive 64/432/EEC states that a bovine herd is officially TB-free (OTF) if all the animals over six months of age have passed two skin tests at six-month intervals.
“Although herds must be tested subsequently at yearly intervals to maintain OTF status, the interval between tests may be extended as the national or regional incidence of confirmed herd breakdowns declines.
“When the annual percentage of infected herds in an Member State (or a region of it) has not exceeded 0.1% for six consecutive years and all bovines slaughtered are subject to official veterinary meat inspection, that geographical unit can be declared OTF and dispense with routine skin testing of cattle.”
But he added: “This is a significant outbreak but all the affected animals are on one holding. If the disease was found on a neighbouring farm that would count as another incident. Scotland has had a low and relatively stable incidence of bovine TB for many years.”
In 2010, the last year for which statistics are available, TB was confirmed in six herds in Scotland. In Wales that year there were 433 infected herds and in England the figure was 2025. Scotland had nine cases of bovine TB in 2009 and 12 cases in 2008.
Epidemiologists from the Animal Health Veterinary Agency are currently attempting to discover the source of the outbreak, which has been described as a “mystery” because the dairy herd was fully closed and no animals has been introduced to the farm since 1988.
The disease was discovered when lesions were spotted by vets in a cow which had been sent for slaughter. Skin and gamma interferon tests were carried out on the herd and a number of positive reactors were identified in both screens.
Movement restrictions are in place and no animals are allowed on or off the farm except for slaughter.