Vets rule out link between TB cases

As reported in the Yorkshire Post on April 17, eight animals were condemned after a routine screening raised the alarm at Forlorn Hope Farm, Stubbs Walden, between Pontefract and Doncaster – home to well-known showman Ken Jackson and his pedigree British Blondes, as well as a commercial beef herd.

The TB was in both herds and one of the positives was the best Blonde bull Mr Jackson has ever had – Hallmark Boxter. When Defra's veterinary service, Animal Health, had to repeat some tests which had failed, Mr Jackson pleaded for another test on Boxter, in case there had been a false positive. He said the animal had a sensitive system, which might easily have over-reacted to the Defra test process. And he offered to pay any price Defra wanted to name, to discourage re-tests becoming a routine expectation.

This week, his wife, Anita, said Boxter was still on the farm, in isolation, while the wrangle continued. But the senior TB vet at Animal Health in Leeds, Clare Taylor, said she could not give ground.

Defra says a second test would set a precedent which could lead to impossible complications and Dr Taylor said: "When you have a positive reaction against the background of chronic disease already confirmed on the same farm, there is no room for argument. It is a heck of a thing to happen and we sympathise very much but our policy has been tested by judicial review."

She also stood by her department's refusal to allow semen from Boxter to be saved, because there is a remote risk of TB transmission by that route.

The wider concern for farmers is where the TB came from. Less than a year ago, there was a cluster of cases in the Denby Dale area, on the other side of the M1. Defra needed to know if there had been a leak in its containment operation – or, worse, if the disease might have got into the local wildlife and spread that way. Badgers carry it and often move around cattle fields.

But it turns out the strain of TB on the Jackson farm is different. Its "home range" appears to be the junction of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and south east Wales.

That suggests the problems of Forlorn Hope Farm – named after an American civil war battle – are imported rather than home-grown, which will be a relief to the rest of Yorkshire.

Defra now has four years of cattle movements in and out of Forlorn Hope to follow up – dating back to the last all-clear for TB – and there might be more knock-ons to find, but none have shown up so far and movement restrictions apply only to Mr Jackson's cattle and traced contacts which have not yet been cleared.

Dr Taylor said: " I appeal to people in Yorkshire to think hard before they purchase from high-risk areas or animals which might have come into contact with high risks."

CW 22/5/10