TB Disaster

[Broomcroft]

I don't know whether you've heard, but a dairy farm in Staffordshire with 150 cows, 80% in calf, had 97 go down as reactors. They have now had to have their whole herd culled. The farmer is reported as being a broken man. The owner says that many were in the last 6 weeks of calving and calves were being born on the slaughterhouse floor.

Also a flock of sheep has been quite badly hit (by sheep standards) in another area of the country. I have been in touch with the authorities regarding the sheep incident and they say it is still quite rare in sheep, but is it really? and where is all this going?

Truly terrible. I feel heartbroken for these people and the cows. Such cruelty all round.

[John999]

Trully devastating

[ann]

Its a pity some one couldn't video this and post it onto U tube, maybe its time to stick up for our poor cows, with the recent horse meat sage I'm sure we could sell all our British beef at home so it wouldn't matter if we vaccinated our cows, better that than all this needless slaughtering of cows and calves, and if it gets into the sheep population, what them, carnage I presume.

[Saffy]

There is this on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofTpfzEUUBY

Stephanie

[JamsHundred]

Clive,
I read about this TB disaster on the US board and feared for your herd. The good news is that they are Dexters! I have heard that when hoof and mouth caused so many herds to be culled in the UK that not a single Dexter had to be culled. The genetic immunity is something to be treasured and preserved in our breed for this very reason!

I watched that tape. I was literally nauseous. Is the farm community so small in the UK that you have no voice with the governing authorities? The "squeaky wheel" you know You should start screaming bloody murder to cull badgers and preserve cows! Alas. The socialists are taking over in the US as well. The rules for livestock are becoming more and more tedius. . . . and to what end?
We have had TWO mad cow cases in years. It is about control of the humans not the animals!
Just wait until they have to eat those little buggers because they have culled all the cows. LOL!

Actually, it is not far-fetched to consider food shortages. Here in the US our cattle herds are at a 50 year low in numbers. And folks from China are coming here to buy farms - so they can grow food to send home to feed their countrymen.

Judy

[Broomcroft]

I read about this TB disaster on the US board and feared for your herd. The good news is that they are Dexters! I have heard that when hoof and mouth caused so many herds to be culled in the UK that not a single Dexter had to be culled. The genetic immunity is something to be treasured and preserved in our breed for this very reason!

Dexter's are not immune to bTB unfortunately Judy. Wish they were. We've had to have just one culled which was an AA-Dexter cross. Of course it was the best steer on the farm!

The TB vet told me that it is spreading like wildfire and showed me a map of the spread and how it was generally following ridges that wildlife use, or at least certain variations/types of TB were. The general public are not in favour of a TB cull because they think it is unnecessary. But they only think it is unnecessary because they have been misinformed. Even large trusted organisations dare not ever commit or agree with a badger cull because they fear losing their income.

Being a farmer in the UK is very strange indeed, because every or almost every person who gives you advice like TB vets, say that a cull is essential, but most people in the political and news world say the opposite.

I was an RSPCA inspected farm and very proud of it. But I resigned with immediate effect when they came up with a campaign to save badgers from a cull and only mentioned cattle and hedgehogs (which they eat alive) in the small print. I asked why they were doing this and not having a Back Off Cattle campaign so that heavily pregnant cows at least could have a fair say. In response they sent me an email which they said explained why a cull could not work. Any yet, when I read their email, it clearly said why a cull would work. The fact they could read it the other way round has made me wonder abut the human brain and how it works.

Unfortunately for them and everything else, badgers can live a long long time carry huge amounts of TB and at times shedding it all over the place.

It will get sorted, but I fear not until pets and possibly people in more numbers start to suffer the consequences.

Here's the story of the Staffordshire couple on Twitter https://twitter.com/gillian_dixon/statu ... 12/photo/1

[strawberriesclint]

Hi all

I know to well how unfair the whole TB situation can be, last year we had an inconclusive, so had to be tested again and she was still an inconclusive, so she had to go. She was three weeks off of calving to our bull that we had had to had sadly put down due to peritonitis only a few weeks before. I begged the ministry to let me hold onto to her, quarentined to let her calve but they would not allow me. The morning arrived when the lorry came to pick her up, she was halter trained and I had shown her, so I haltered her and led her up in the lorry. It broke my heart. The rest of the herd was tested and all clear. Then I was told she had no visible lesions so now had to wait 8 weeks for culture test. I infact had to wait 9 weeks and then I had to ring them and the cow was clear, she didn't have TB so I had lost both cow and calf for no reason. This year, thankfully all went through TB test not a bump in sight. I agree that slaughter houses should be filmed when such disasters such as the farmer previously mentioned happens, every time the cull is discussed on the telly it's the same sweet pictures of the badgers that are shown, not the real truth of what devistation TB can cause. My heart goes out to him, such loss must be unbearable.

Cyndy

[Broomcroft]

Our steer came back positive for lesions, so he did have TB and that can only have been caught from wildlife. So now we have to test every 60-90 days until we go clear. We've done one retest and all was clear. Any calves over 42 days old have to be tested as well. We are in the middle of calving and our next test is due soon!!!

Someone on a farming forum did this last year and nearly lost his wife. Had a very fit and strong vet not been on hand, a cow, who was normally calm and friendly, may well have killed her. The cow completely lost it, frothing at the mouth, got the farmers wife on the ground. The vet got the cow off the woman with a fence-post.

I asked the DEFRA TB vet about delaying the test until my cows weren't so protective, and it can be done, but he said I would be likely to loose part of my annual payment because I wouldn't be complying with the requirements.

You'd think that health & safety would always be top priority, obviously not. I heard a Welsh farmer had also been killed whilst TB testing recently.

[domsmith]

Its just terrible, i just cant imagine what it must be like to live under the shadow of TB.

Does it make you question keeping cattle? When our four yearly is due it sends me over the edge so every 60 days must be a killer.

bring on the cull, but also surely a tb vaccine should surely be considered. and i know the EU bullshit we would have to overcome to be able to do it.

My sympathies Clive and anyone else suffering with this.

dominic

[monica a waltho]

I was surprised that they made you send your cow off so close to calving as we had a tb breakdown 2 years ago we had one positive close to calving cow and several inconclusives
One of the high inconclusives went for slaughter rest had to be isolated the cow was close to calving i had thought about a month off but as running with bull date not 100% because she was close to calving the ministry would not send her off but insisted she was isolated until she calved which she did about 8/9 weeks later, she suckled the calf for 7 days then was taken to slaughter by ourselves., no lesions were found and nothing appeared on culture test. All the other inconclusives passed next time.I would have liked to retested her as she had calved near to next test being done for herd but beacause she had appeared to have failed first test that was not allowed. We also wanted to send her to slaughter after 48hrs of calving because we thought it would be less stressful for calf trying to get it on a bucket but that was not allowed as it was supposed to be on welfare grounds not to transport the cow, as i said we took her ourslves any way as we are only 3-4 miles from slaughter house.The calf a bull was then bucket fed there were no restrictions on his mixing with other stock and he has passed all his tests since. We were surprised that he was not slaughtered but apparently it may have been different if she had have had lesions
Perhaps different areas have different rules but it seemed hard in your case .

[Tim Watson]

Last year we were warned by our vet that testing close to term could cause them to slip the calves.
I wrote to AHVLA in Starcross nr Exeter and explained we took TB very seriously but could not knowingly jeopardise the calves. We also said that we understood that we would be on close down until the test was completed and that we would do it at the earliest possible date. They were very good about it, copied in the enforcement people and told us that was fine. No threats or anything about SFP. I don't see how, if you acknowledge the position and that you are knowingly closing yourself they can threaten.

[Broomcroft]

That's re-assuring Tim, thanks, I shall investigate further locally. I did speak to one of the vet assistants today, who is also a farmer daughter, and she said a lot of people just don't go ahead with a test near / during calving, and just stay closed-down. That's almost certainly what I'll do because there's not really another safe option.

I have found Animal Health staff to be extremely helpful and thoughtful throughout the whole process. The paperwork is horrendous, but the staff are great. I did say to one of them that I couldn't read the paperwork because my brain simply couldn't take it in. She said it didn't matter because it didn't say anything really, just that we were closed . Seems like a pretty short sentence to me!