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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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Farmer 'took his own life' because of bovine TB |
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9 Sep 2011, 7:35 PM
John Round, 44, a dairy farmer from Elmore Back in Gloucestershire, took his own life allegedly because he was being investigated for ear tag and passport irrrelularities. he died after deliberately by-passing the safety cut-out on his tele-handler. He was found in the farm’s silage pit crushed against the side wall by tractor driver, Tom Miles. Tom had arrived for work and saw the loader’s engine was still running and its wheels were still turning. “It has a safety device which means it will not move unless someone is sitting in the seat. I saw that a large bag of feed had been placed on the seat to by-pass it,” he said. He moved the loader away from Mr Round and noticed the handbrake was off.
Former Trading Standards officer, Nigel Durnford, told the inquest in Cheltenham held in September 2011 that the investigation had been about cattle which had been sent for slaughter after reacting to bovine TB testing. He said it was believed the cattle sent for slaughter were not those which had reacted positive at the farm, and that their ear tags and cattle passports had been changed. DNA samples apparently showed none of the five cattle in question were related to their listed offspring or their dams, he said.
In a statement made three weeks before his death, Mr Round said that cattle ear tags were changed when they got damaged, and some may have been given the wrong tags, but he was satisfied all the correct cattle had been sent for slaughter.
The inquest heard the father of three had been ‘worried’ about the investigation and the day before his death. He had been told that his biggest customer, Dairy Crest, would no longer buy the farm’s milk.
Summing up, deputy Gloucestershire coroner, David Dooley, said he was satisfied that Mr Round had intended to take his own life. The verdict was suicide.
Information from /www.farmersguardian.com/home/latest-news/gloucestershire-farmer-took-his-own-life-coroner-rules/41462.article
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