TB or not TB ?– that is the question we needed answering

Comment Brian Henderson

Scotland’s cattle keepers are justifiably proud of the country’s Tb-free status.

This is especially so as the disease seems to be knocking on our door as England and Wales continue to struggle to get bovine TB under control, bringing significant costs and misery to affected farmers.

And the official recognition of Scotland’s Tb-free status by the European Commission also gives validity to our claims of high animal health and welfare standards.

However our Tb-free status does not come without a price – as we discovered following the routine four yearly test on our suckler herd in January this year…

Despite running a closed herd on an isolated unit which has no direct contiguous contact with neighbouring cattle, one of our last old coos to be checked during the test had a lump which saw her identified as a reactor by the vet.

At this point a day which had begun with hopes of a speedy completion of the routine test to let us get on with other work in the afternoon suddenly changed dramatically – as the realisation that we were facing much larger worries marked the start of a long and stressful process.

For, as we soon discovered, part of the cost of the country’s Tb–free status is an inversion of the normal burden of proof – and, as far as infection is concerned, if a reactor is found you find yourself guilty until proven innocent.

With our herd’s Tb-free status therefore immediately suspended, we struggled to even imagine how any infection could have arrived on the farm. And so began several long, anxious weeks spent pondering

0 Feed stores were running seriously short “TB or not TB ?– that is the question”, as we pinned our hopes to the prospect of the reaction simply being a false positive.

Within a few days the post-mortem tests on the cow – which had been compulsorily slaughtered – found no lesions or signs of the disease. But lymphnode samples still had to be sent off to a vet lab down south to culture anything present.

We also learned that every single cow, bull, heifer, bullock, stirk and calf on the place had to be retested in eight weeks time – just as calving, lambing and sowing were set to be in full swing.

Movement restrictions also meant that, other than direct to slaughter with a special licence, no cattle could be sold.

And so began a long wait which wasn’t helped by the fact that we are always at “peak cattle” at that time of year – and while we were lucky enough not to be as drastically short of forage or straw as some, not being able to sell anything through the store ring meant that we’d be running feed stores right to the wire.

When it eventually took place the re-testing was a nail-biting process and we held our breath as each and every animal was checked for reactor lumps – and it wasn’t until the very last individual was declared clear that we were able to breathe again.

Or so we thought – but the results of the culture test were the remaining piece of the jigsaw.

However, these were due at the about the same time as the re-testing was complete – and with every indication that things looked set to be OK, the long Easter bank holiday weekend seemed to be the only thing delaying us being declared “all clear”.

But after chasing up these results we were knocked sideways to be told that, due to building work being carried out at the testing lab at Weybridge near London, the cultures hadn’t even begun – leaving us with the prospect of a further eight weeks standstill!

While I’m not particularly proud of going ballistic at this point and giving some senior figures a frank expression of my feelings on this unforeseen delay – which appeared to be due to Weybridge not communicating their planned closure to the APHA in Scotland – it did produce a result.

For when the issue was looked into, our samples had actually been processed – but not logged on the system.

But the surge of relief which washed over us when this too was declared clear – meaning all restrictions could be lifted – was somewhat tempered by the fact that other poor souls whose samples had reached the lab only days after ours would be facing an eight week extension to their stress and sufferings.