British Simmental Review 2018

SIMMENTAL REVIEW 2018
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The TBAS identifies four main sources of infection;
1. Brought-in cattle. This can be cattle which have
been purchased at a market or privately, your own
cattle which have left the holding for a show or
those which return unsold from the market.
2. Neighbouring cattle. However biosecure and
health conscious you are, if your cattle have noseto-nose
contact with other cattle, there’s a risk.
3. Latent infection. The TB skin test does not have
absolutely 100% detection rate, and animals can
retain infection without reacting to a skin test.
4. Wildlife. Be it from badgers, deer, alpacas, or other
sources, there is no doubt that wildlife is a threat.
The TBAS spent some time looking round the farm,
noting current biosecurity, hazards and TB history. They
define biosecurity as measures, or a series of measures,
which reduce the risk of disease; in livestock terms, this
is based on the premise that prevention is better than
cure. We were presented with a chart showing what
percentage risk each of the categories above currently
posed. In our case, we run a closed herd, and although we
show cattle, they are always isolated and tested before
rejoining the herd. We are largely bordered by roads,
rivers and railways, and the only field with neighbouring
cattle has a minimum 6 metre gap. At this time, we had
one non-homebred animal in our herd, and although this
had passed four years worth of TB testing, a 5% risk was
allocated. Which left us with a whopping 95% of our risk
being allocated to wildlife.
It was very clear from this that the responsibility to
protect our cattle from wildlife threat lay with us. We had
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