Controlling bTB in cattle

It's important to control bTB (bovine tuberculosis) in cattle as it is a notifiable animal disease and for several other reasons.
It’s an infectious and unpleasant disease, and if a cow is suspected to have bTB it must be immediately quarantined and tested. If it tests positive it is then culled.
The UK has some of the world’s highest welfare standards, and it’s vitally important to protect this reputation. An outbreak could also impact trade and risk the viability of the dairy and beef sectors.
Testing
Cattle are continuously tested for bTB in England, and this is managed by five regional partners who are responsible for allocating vets and ensuring high-standard testing.
Farmers and livestock keepers contact their regional partner to make sure their bTB testing is completed on time.
Testing procedures vary based on the risk areas:
High-risk area
Cattle herds are tested every six months, unless they meet ‘earned recognition’ conditions which allow for less frequent testing. Testing them before they are moved is compulsory, and there is additional surveillance in HRA slaughterhouses.
Edge area
This is the buffer zone between HRA and LRAs. TB testing varies in edge areas – herds in edge areas with a higher risk of bTB are tested every six months, and herds in edge areas with a lower risk of bTB are tested yearly and after they are moved.
Low risk area
Cattle herds are tested every four years unless they are in a hotspot area.
High-risk areas include Wales, the west and southwest of England.
Low-risk areas include the north and the east of England, and the edge areas run from Hampshire to Derbyshire and Cheshire.
A full map of bTB impacted areas can be found at: tbhub.co.uk/bovine-tb-risk-map.
Wales’s bTB eradication plan differs from England’s as it is a devolved issue.
What happens if a cow gets bTB?
If a cow gets bTB, the entire herd is put under movement restrictions and must be tested, and this means cattle aren’t allowed on or off the premises until the APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) gives the farmer a licence.
A vet from the APHA will conduct a disease investigation and can advise on how to reduce the risk of spreading bTB and eradicate it from the herd.
Any cows that test positive are tagged and must be quarantined from the rest of the herd until they are sent for slaughter.
Not all cattle will show bTB lesions at slaughter or in post-mortem examinations. This could be because they had an early-stage infection, the lesions were too small to see or because of limitations in slaughterhouse surveillance.
Bulk testing milk for bTB
There is currently a government-funded research project exploring bulk testing milk for bTB.
Provisionally approved by the WOAH (World Organisation for Animal Health), this project aims to screen herds or confirm individual cases when used alongside other bTB tests.
The Actiphage test can also test blood or milk samples for bTB. The APHA has approved this for use in special circumstances, but it is waiting for WOAH approval to be used internationally.
Can you eat meat from bTB infected cattle?
You can eat meat from cattle which have had bTB.
Defra follows strict EU-wide regulations for processing meat from cattle with bTB. The cattle can enter the food chain as long as they do not have lesions in more than one organ/body part.
The FSA (Food Safety Authority) oversees this process to ensure food safety, and there have been no documented cases of people catching TB from eating meat.
Both the European Food Safety Authority and Defra dismiss concerns about this as ‘negligible’ and ‘irresponsible scaremongering’ respectively.
According to the NHS, most TB cases in humans are likely reoccurrences of decades-old infections caught before practices like milk pasteurisation and meat inspections became common in the UK.
Breeding resistance into the national herd
AHDB Dairy has introduced a new genetic index called ‘TB Advantage’ which helps improve the resistance of dairy cows to bTB by identifying resistance patterns across bloodlines.
This isn’t a guaranteed cure, but it can help improve bTB resistance in cattle over generations.