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Doubts over Welsh Government's 2041 bTB-free target

Doubts over Welsh Government's 2041 bTB-free target

Wales saw a 27% increase in the number of cattle culled due to TB in 2024, with more than 13,000 cattle slaughtered; this represents a record high in any 12-month period.
But chief veterinary officer Richard Irvine said this reflected 'strategic use'' of high-sensitivity gamma interferon blood testing in conjunction with standard testing – used to identify infected animals in breakdown herds.
While this increases slaughter numbers, the goal is to cut infection rates and prevent recurring breakdowns, he explained.
'Our goal remains clear: better detection now means less disease in the future,' said Dr Irvine.
According to the Welsh Government, Wales is making positive progress with its TB eradication programme, through partnership working and changes to government policies.
These include on-farm slaughter changes and movement restrictions for inconclusive reactors (IRs).
The government said feedback on the change to on-farm slaughter had been positive with a quarter of the animals that would have been affected avoiding on-farm slaughter in the past year.
New movement restrictions are to come into force too for IR cattle, probably this autumn.
These animals will be restricted to their herd with only licensed movements permitted direct to slaughter, or into an approved finishing unit.
This is because there is evidence that resolved standard IR cattle are at higher risk than other cattle as a larger proportion of them go on to become TB reactors at a later point, according to the government.
'Currently this risks such resolved standard IR cattle with undetected infection being moved and spreading TB to other herds – a key concern raised by industry,' said rural affairs minister Huw Irranca-Davies.
A strong partnership approach between vets and farmers is also understood to be strengthening TB control in Pembrokeshire.
A similar initiative will now be launched in North Wales in the lower TB incidence area.
NFU Cymru said further significant change was still needed, although it acknowledged that improvements to partnership working and targeted revisions to government bovine TB policy were encouraging.
Its bovine TB focus group chairman Roger Lewis said the scale and pace of progress required 'cannot be overstated''.
'For those people who are dealing with bovine TB on a daily basis, progress towards eradication feels slow and often non-existent,' said dairy farmer Mr Lewis.
'That is why NFU Cymru continues to call for a comprehensive eradication strategy that deals with this disease wherever it exists.''

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