Livestock farmer’s fears after TB outbreak
ADEVON livestock farmer has spoken of his fear of losing his home and livelihood after a devastating bovine TB outbreak.
Henry Andrews’ beef enterprise at Pyworthy, near Holsworthy, was forced into lockdown in November last year after six in-calf heifers, ranging from four to six months through their pregnancies, tested positive for the disease.
Weeks later, a further 10 animals had to be slaughtered.
Mr Andrews’ herd of pedigree Devon and cross-breed cattle, which he had planned to increase to 75 cows next year, is now down to 37.
“I fear for my family’s future,” he told the Farmers Guardian. “I am frightened because if I have a repeat of the last test I will be finished as a suckler cow producer, with pretty much immediate effect and facing bankruptcy.”
According to Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) figures, in the 12 months ending December 2018 a total of 44,655 cattle were slaughtered in the UK because of a bovine TB incident, compared with 43,548 in the same 12-month period to December 2017 - an increase of 2.5%.
Total cattle tests in England in 2018 were just over 7.8 million, the statistics added, compared to just over 7.5 million for the previous year.
Mr Andrews, who is waiting for an additional 28 cows to be retested, has following the outbreaks on his farm raised questions over Defra’s 25-year TB eradication strategy in England, which along with sixmonthly cattle testing and improved biosecurity includes licensed badger culling in 10 zones within the High Risk Area, covering parts of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
He said: “I have a closed herd, I have no nose-to-nose contact with other cattle from different holdings and I have a high level of biosecurity, with all visitors having to disinfect themselves and their transport upon entering the farm.
“I draw the conclusion that I either brought in infected cattle which had eluded a pre-movement test and subsequent testing, or the cull has displaced infected badgers onto my holding.”
Mr Andrews is also calling for a cattle vaccine and Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals test to be brought to market, citing a Royal Society report which found the skin test could be between 49-74% unreliable.
“It is an absolute travesty,” he added. “Imagine if the British automotive industry sent out 49% of their cars with serious safety issues. It would not happen and the fallout if it did happen would be off the scale, so why is it acceptable in the UK cattle industry?”
A Defra spokesperson said: “Our strategy to tackle bTB includes one of the most rigorous testing and surveillance programmes in cattle in the world, using the best available tests.”