Race against time as bovine TB is always lurking - Stuart Minting
Yorkshire’s cattle industry is large and diverse and although the region is considered a low-risk area for bovine TB all would agree it’s important to keep it that way with the prevalence of the disease in cattle herds in England dropping to 3.5 per cent at the end of December.
Despite this, the disease remains one of the biggest and most persistent problems facing English cattle farmers.
According to the TB Hub, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire both contain local disease fronts advancing towards Yorkshire from high-risk areas.
It’s sobering to learn bovine TB saw more than 20,000 cattle from farms in England slaughtered in 2025.
The price paid by wildlife has proved heavy too. During the 12-year cull in England some 247,000 badgers were killed by marksmen working to tackle the disease.
The NFU has pointed towards cases of bovine TB in England being at their lowest level in nearly 20 years, adding that the disease continues to place a heavy emotional and financial burden on farming families.
Delegates at the union’s annual conference earlier this year heard farmers were carrying the daily burden of a disease that remained stubbornly entrenched and the Government faced a race against time to meet its pledge of eradicating bovine TB in England by 2038.
So with a beef herd of 71,000 and a dairy herd of 75,000 in Yorkshire at the last count, the incoming strategy to make England officially bovine TB-free by 2038 needs to be implemented as soon as possible.
Unveiling the strategy, in a statement which may have seen some eyebrows raised, farming minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “This Government is determined to remove the barriers that hold farmers back from reaching their full potential.”
While a test clearly needs to be developed to distinguish infected cattle from vaccinated ones before a cattle vaccine is rolled out, failure to introduce what would be a most effective block to the spread of bovine TB in the next few years would risk undermining the aforementioned extensive efforts to tackle the infectious bacterial disease, for which many animals show no early symptoms.
Crucially, following years of controversy over tackling the disease through badger culls which are expected to cease by 2029, the strategy has been developed collaboratively with vets, industry and government representatives, farmers and scientists.
Significantly, the British Cattle Veterinary Association has welcomed the strategy, which outlines how proportionate action will be taken where wildlife or other farmed species pose a clear bovine TB risk and gives local groups a key role on the ground.