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Case Studies and Articles Latest |
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9 Mar 2013, 8:16 PM
Bovine TB and cattle vaccination - Rethink bTB's submission to EFRA read more...
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9 Mar 2013, 8:07 PM
The following is the formal response submitted to EFRA by farmers who own a 48ha farm in Gloucestershire and have kept beef cattle since the 1980's in a TB 'hot-spot'. The business has included a commercial beef and calf rearing unit but the herd has never been under TB2 restrictions. It makes some excellent points and is well worth reading. It has been reproduced here with permission from the farmers. read more...
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15 Jan 2013, 8:33 PM
TB Health Check Wales was a zero tolerance policy aimed at TB testing all cattle in Wales. It was introduced on October 2008 and ran to the end of December 2009. It was a test of all cattle herds in Wales over a 15 month period 'to provide a more accurate picture of the disease'. According to Gwlad, Bovine TB Special Edition Summer 2010 the campaign is costing some £27.7 million ( with funding from EU). With the increased testing an increasing number of positive and inconclusive animals were identified and slaughtered since the programme began. The costs continued to escalate, as did the hardship to cattle owners suffering continuous testing and herd breakdowns. read more...
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8 Jan 2013, 5:54 PM
The Republic of Ireland has been culling badgers since the 1980s and it is understood there was national culling from 1997. Between 1996 and 2006 about 4,000 badgers were culled each year. Most are caught using snares and then shot. One study, known as the Four Areas Project, alleges reductions in cattle TB incidence ranging from 51% to 68% over a five-year culling period. The information is being used to help support badger culling in England. Culling is still underway. However, one vet, formerly practising in Donegal, is questioning the claims being made. He believes perturbation is a much bigger threat than we are being led to believe. He is concerned that Ireland has officially denied any perturbation at all. read more...
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14 Dec 2012, 6:09 PM
In December 2012 a farmer from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, an alleged bTB hot spot area and venue for one of the infamous pilot badger culls next year, was taken to court for offences relating to bTB controls. The fraud offences could be summarised as deliberate swapping of identities of TB reactor cattle with healthy livestock; retaining the reactor animal and producing milk from it; and in one case having a calf born to a reactor cow. read more...
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25 Nov 2012, 4:50 PM
BOVINE TB ERADICATION STRATEGY - Strengthening the eradication programme and new ways of working. The ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP has submitted an interesting representation to the Government's new Animal Health and Welfare Board. As it contains some useful and interesting information we are setting it out in fu read more...
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3 Nov 2012, 3:48 PM
There are an increasing number of alpacas being dragged into the system, many are pets. The owners are coerced into having them tested using the skin and blood tests that seem to be even more imperfect for this species than they are for cattle. Many alpacas are being slaughtered after testing positive to the badger Brock TB stat pak. There are no alterations to this test assay other than camelid blood. They are then found to have absolutely no sign of bTB, either at post-mortem or following tissue culture. This is the distressing story of one owner and her alpacas. read more...
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20 Oct 2012, 7:44 PM
Farmers want vaccination for their cattle, not badger culls. Despite losing more than half their valuable organic herd of beef cattle, a Devon farming partnership is against the badger cull. Instead they want a 'vaccine that works.' read more...
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15 Oct 2012, 5:50 PM
Dave Purser owns a 48ha pasture farm in Glos. He comes from a local farming family and has kept his own cattle since the 1980′s in a TB ‘hot-spot’. The business has included a commercial beef and calf rearing unit but the herd has never been under TB2 restrictions. Here he gives his views on the bovine TB problems. read more...
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13 Oct 2012, 6:48 PM
Steve Jones has 35 years of experience working within a diverse range of livestock enterprises; from small to medium sized units to large scale agri-business within various locations around the globe. He is trained in organic milk and meat production and have extensive practical and theoretical knowledge in all aspects of the industry including: calf rearing; hoof trimming; herd health; cattle breeding and day to day management at the highest level. He has managed some of the highest yielding dairy herds in the world while attaining consistent levels of hygiene and disease resistance within the livestock under my control. He is also a qualified lecturer in rural and environmental studies. read more...
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How many vets/testers follow the correct procedure for skin testing? |
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23 Apr 2012, 9:37 AM
We have received several comments from different farmers regarding the testing procedure and it is clear that the quality of testing varies considerably. Some farmers make formal complaints. However, we rarely get public reports regarding testing irregularities but we suspect cases are far more widespread than reported.
A rare case was reported in April 2102 in the Holyhead and Anglesey Mail (www.theonlinemail.co.uk/bangor-and-anglesey-news/local-bangor-and-anglesey-news/2012/04/18/anglesey-vets-pracice-banned-from- testing-for-bovine-tb-66580-30786655/). An Anglesey veterinary practice has been banned from testing for Bovine TB after it was found out it wasn’t conducting the process properly. The practice is the Gaerwen based vets Bennett-Williams which sent out letters to farmers and farming unions explaining the disruption to TB testing.
Cattle farmers who use the practice for TB testing have been told by Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to make alternative testing arrangements after an audit of TB testing procedures identified the problems.
To regain the right to deal with TB, vets at the practice will need to be re-trained.
An angry farmer told the Mail: “There are deadlines and legal requirements about testing that we as farmers need to meet.
“If this is not done right then it could put the whole TB control plan in jeopardy. We could believe that our cattle are healthy and then find that they have to be destroyed, which would put you out of business.”
A spokesman for the Animal, Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) part of government’s DEFRA department said: “Following an audit of TB testing procedures, which identified a failure to follow standard operating procedures, AHVLA has suspended a private veterinary surgeon working in North Wales from operating as a panel 1a (bovine TB testing) official veterinarian, pending re-training.
“Owners of cattle served by the suspended practice have been notified and advised to make alternative testing arrangements.”
The Mail apparently contacted the Bennett-Williams practise about the issue and was told they were too busy to comment.
How often is the correct procedure ignored? Certainly we are told of many such incidents where complaints are made and nothing appears to be done, including the ones we detail in the articles /case studies section of www.bovinet.co.uk, including the one set out in detail at www.bovinetb.co.uk/article.php?article_id=95
According to the latest news on the AHVLA (Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories) site a http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/about/official-vets/newsitems/index.htm the AHVLA has been working with a group of OVs, including representatives from the RCVS, BCVA and BVA, to produce a set of instructions for OVs on tuberculosis testing in cattle. Following a review cycle and a number of workshops the final set of instructions have now been signed off. The main changes in the instructions are:
Removal of the requirement to check movement records at the test.
Additional clarification on animal identification, actions on missing or added animals and unidentified or incorrectly identified animals during a test.
The requirements for measuring on day two, in particular that each injection site must be visually inspected and manually examined by careful palpation of the skin fold in the injection site area. Where there is any detectable reaction at either site, both sites must be re-measured with the same callipers used on day one.
A summary of skin test instructions can be found at the following sites:
http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/External_OV_Instructions/TB_Instructions/Skin_Test/index.htm
http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/control/tuberculin.htm
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