Boxy the bull saved as vets admit error in TB claim

It means he can be let out of the paddock where he has been in isolation on Ken and Anita Jackson’s beef and bloodstock farm at Stubbs Walden, near Doncaster. But not just yet.

As a precaution against triumph turning to disaster at the last minute, he will be kept fenced in until the rest of the herd has been cleared by a routine test, due the week after next.

The result vindicates the Jackson family’s decision to fight a slaughter order issued in April 2010 by the Leeds division of Animal Health, the veterinary service of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). And it leaves the Department facing the fact it has spent a lot of taxpayers’ money defending a mistake. It would not give a figure last night.

In April, a High Court judge ruled Defra had broken its own rules by mixing two blood samples and its diagnosis was invalid.

The department argued in court its breach of procedure was trivial and irrelevant. And it continued to hope and believe it would be proved right in the long run.

But in June the bull sailed through a repeat of the skin test which is the first step in screening for TB.

It had, however passed the skin test before and it was a follow-up blood test which appeared to show he was infected. Vets insisted on another blood test as well as a second skin test.

The Jacksons objected – not least because it meant trusting Defra to be objective in the privacy of its own laboratories.

But on Tuesday this week, both tests were carried out on the same visit and on Thursday night, Mr Jackson got the phone call to say the blood test was negative.

Yesterday Defra called to check on the bull’s reaction to an injection, just under the skin, of a sterilised culture of TB-related bacteria – and had to accept that it was normal.

“I am over the moon,” said Mr Jackson. “The irony is that a second blood test is all I asked for in the first place.”

He added: “We are waiting for my daughter to get back from holiday, then we will certainly be having a party.”

His married daughter, Kate McNeil, who organises education in the health service, was Boxster’s main showring companion and played a big part in the fight to save him. Her brother, Paul, works on the farm with her father.

Mr Jackson did have some TB in his herd when Boxster was wrongly diagnosed – picked up, he believes, when he took a heifer to market in Carlisle and brought her back unsold.

He wanted a second opinion on the British Blonde bull because of its value and because he knew there had been some difficulty getting blood samples from it.

But he accepted most of the cull orders issued by Defra and the remainder of the herd has had the all-clear on several occasions since. However, the next scheduled check, by skin tests, is due soon and Boxster will be kept in isolation until it is clear there is no risk from letting him back among his cows.

The bull will be five years old in October and has been out of action for nearly 18 months of the prime of his life.

Dermott Thomas, a spokesman for the Ipswich solicitors who handled the case, Barker Gotelee, said an agreement had been reached with Defra on legal costs,

Last night, the Department confirmed: “This bull can be regarded as officially TB-free.”

Its statement defended its TB policy and made no apology for its behaviour in this case. But it said it would settle the Jacksons’ legal costs within 10 days.