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Case Studies and Articles Latest |
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30 Jul 2019, 3:10 PM
A dairy farmer has been fined for chaotic record keeping that may have contributed to the spread of bovine tuberculosis on his premises. read more...
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13 Aug 2014, 1:18 PM
A young lad is forced to slaughter his pet cow because of the current bovine TB policy. read more...
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29 Mar 2014, 1:56 PM
A 33 year old farmer and father of two in Shrophsire was killed by a bull as he tested cattle for bTB. He was conducting routine bTB testing on cows at Ashwood Farm in Whitchurch on 3 December 2013 when he was fatally injured by a bull read more...
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13 Dec 2013, 6:47 PM
There is such a focus on badgers that the fact that bovine TB is a cattle based problem has been set on one side. History has shown us that the incidence of TB in cattle can be brought down to a very low level by cattle based measures alone. Add to this the vaccination of badgers in hot spot areas and even their implication can be dealt with. read more...
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9 Dec 2013, 6:08 PM
Looking at some of the anti cull websites and having kept a close eye on media reports during the trial culls that have recently finished in Gloucestershire and Somerset, it would seem that if the culling is rolled out into other areas the level of opposition is not going to get less and could even worsen, meaning that policing costs alone (paid for from public funds) are going to be exorbitant. read more...
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8 Nov 2013, 6:38 PM
This article is a summary of the significant legal proceedings relating to incidents re cattle and bovine TB. read more...
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7 Nov 2013, 8:20 PM
In this well researched article by Mike Rendle he poses this question: 'Are badger infections following, not leading, bovine TB infections in cattle? ' and discovers some very interesting facts about cattle, badgers and bovine TB. read more...
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30 Oct 2013, 9:18 AM
Bovine TB - the views of a farmer based on field-based observations over many years. Peter Aspin was a herdsman, then a dairy farmer. He is now a beef farmer and also has a contract rearing dairy heifers for a local farmer. He was conventional and is now organic. He also run the Shropshire Agroforestry Project. All on 40 acres. To understand bovine TB one must first understand how significantly livestock husbandry practices have changed in recent years. I was on a dairy farm a couple of years ago - a closed herd (one that reared all its own replacement youngstock) - which had had its first bTB breakdown. Two veterinarians had arrived to do the follow-up sixty day retest. Talking to them I asked what they thought was the source of the problem. Their immediate response was that the adjacent dairy farm had purchased imported cattle the previous year, this herd had subsequently developed bTB and passed the infection either directly or via a vector to the neighbouring herd. Whether the imported cattle were themselves carriers of bTB or whether they had no immunity, I do not know and I assumed the vets did not know but the issue of cattle importation is a major concern for both farmers and vets. Ever increasing numbers of dairy cattle are being imported simply because they are cheaper if large enough numbers are purchased. I know of a herd of over two thousand dairy cows where not a single replacement animal is home-reared, every single one arrives on a lorry from mainland Europe. read more...
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15 Sep 2013, 1:54 PM
Dairy farm worker, Steve Jones, is not happy about the future of the dairy industry, or the current policy to cull badgers. The industry has many problems. Bovine tuberculosis is just one.'The cattle industry is long overdue for reform', he says. Here he sets out his comments. read more...
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Powys Farmer and Ear Tag Swapping |
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1 Jul 2011, 9:24 AM
In June 2011, after admitting six offences involving swapping the identities of cattle a Powys farmer, Emyr Jones Evans of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, near Llanfyllin received a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months for breaching bovine TB regulations. He also had to pay £28,900 in court costs. The court heard that Jones Evans had been prepared to change ear tags to disguise the identity of animals and he had also admitted animal passport offences. The charges related to fraud, cattle identification and TB regulation breaches, with 21 other offences taken into consideration.
Mold Crown court heard that when cattle with TB were found on the farm (which was run in partnership with his mother and brother), a large number of animals had to be slaughtered.
The Judge, Philip Hughes, said the most serious of the six offences was the fraud Jones Evans committed in May last year, when he kept an animal due for slaughter, which was a pedigree animal, and presented an inferior cow instead. "You stood to make a financial gain at the expense of public health," the judge told him but went on to say; "No evidence has been identified that anything infected did reach the food chain in your case. It is obvious to me that you did not care whether it did or not."
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting for Powys council, said that there were about 200 milking cows on the 400-acre farm and during TB testing in 2009 ear tag discrepancies were discovered.There was concern about the level of TB on the holding and movement restrictions were imposed. In October and November 2009, 180 TB reactors were identified for slaughter and the farm received £400,000 compensation. A further £100,000 was due to be paid for further slaughtering.
The defendant was no longer a partner in the farm, and apparently his future would be that of a hired hand, he said.
Ken Yorston of Powys trading standards said the sentence should act as a deterrent to others in the farming industry who might be tempted to break the animal health regulations.
Information from www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-13980501
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