Bovine TB Strategy

Environment Secretary, Liz Truss, has announced the next steps for delivering the Government’s TB eradication strategy.  This will include the control of badgers being opened up to a wider number of areas next year and increased cattle testing and movement controls following feedback from a consultation earlier in the year.  According to DEFRA, the Low Risk Area, which covers over half of England is on track to meet its target of achieving TB-free status by the end of 2019.

Perhaps the most significant change for farmers is the introduction, sometime in 2016, of statutory post-movement testing for cattle.  This will apply to animals moving to Low Risk  Areas (LRAs) from a herd on annual or more frequent testing intervals or from holdings in designated counties in Wales.  The window for completing a post-movement test will be between 60-120 days after the animal has arrived onthe farm.  There will also be a more robust approach to dealing with TB breakdowns, particularly in High Risk Areas (HRAs).  All new breakdowns in HRAs will now require two consecutive short interval herd tests (60 days) with negative results before restrictions are lifted.  However, there are positive developments in allowing cattle to move to and from rented grazing within a 10 mile radius of the main holding without pre-movement testing.  More work is needed on this measure and further announcements will be made in due course, but this would help many producers who take on grazing annually.   Other measures include the phasing out of Exempt Finishing Units in LRAs and converting them to Licensed Finishing Units without grazing if operators wished to do so.

With regard to this year’s badger control, Mrs Truss announced that all three cull areas have been successful in meeting their targets.  In total 1,467 badgers were removed during the six week cull in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Dorset (over 26,000 cattle had to be slaughtered in England last year to control the disease).  Furthermore the Government would consider further applications next year to enable badger control to take place over a wider number of areas.  Last year three consortiums in Devon, Cornwall and Herefordshire were turned down.