Case Studies

Following several small TB breakdowns and being in and out of restrictions for about two years, Farmer D suffered a large breakdown and lost 26 animals from his dairy herd as reactors.  A farm visit was carried out to assess the disease risks on the farm and to give practical bio-security advice to minimise the contact between the cattle and the wildlife and reduce the risks of suffering a breakdown of those proportions in future. SWTBFAS was also able to help Farmer A to restock by putting him in touch with some suitable contacts.  Farmer A’s brother also had a dairy unit a short distance away, both felt they were being forced to shoot their Friesian bull calves due to the lack of demand and extremely poor prices currently being paid.  After a kitchen table meeting with an advisor to explain the details the brothers decided to look into setting up an Approved Quarantine Unit.  The advisor looked at a plan of the farm, identified a suitable building and gave advice on the work required in order for it to be approved.  The unit was subsequently approved by Animal Health and father and son are now able to sell their calves OTF (officially TB Free).

Farmers E had never had a TB breakdown but had heard that his neighbour had just gone down.  He rang the service for some advice on the implications should he go down at his next test.  One of the advisors carried out a farm visit and gave bio-security advice to reduce the risks as far as possible and to give general advice on preparing Farmer E in the event that he should he have a breakdown.  This included pre-movement testing and selling stock which he would be unable to keep should he have a breakdown on the next routine test, identifying potential isolation units and explaining how they work. Giving advice on record keeping of different groups of animals, movements and options available, should the worse happen.

Farmer F was under TB2 restrictions and had calves to sell.  She rang the Service to enquire what options were available and to get names of people with Approved Quarantine Units in her area who were buying.

Farmer G was under TB2 restrictions and had stores to sell.  He rang the Service to find out what Approved Finishing Units were in his area.

Farmer H had set up an approved Finishing Unit and rang to let us know that he was buying so that we could pass on his details to farmers looking to sell TB restricted stock.

Farmer J has a herd of 50 Alpacas and was concerned about them contracting TB.  She was keen to know what symptoms she should look out for should they start showing in the animals.  An advisor carried out a visit to give bio-security advice, recommendations for disease risk reduction and some basic symptoms to be aware of.

A phone call from Dairy Farmer K in Dorset who had been under TB restrictions for 18 months rang to find out how we might be able to help him.  After a chat on the phone, this led to a farm visit.  The advisor spent the day assessing the risks from badger contact around the farm yard and cattle housing and the current levels of bio-security in place and then advising how these could affordably be improved.  The farmer had in the past seen badgers in the farm yard and two of our infra-red cctv cameras were strategically placed to see what activity was occurring at the present time.  A map of the farm was provided by the farmer and a badger survey was also carried out which enabled the advisor to identify the active setts and which setts the badgers accessing the farm were coming from and their route of entry into the yard.  Farmer K had also been keeping and rearing all of his calves since being put under restriction but was finding he was becoming stretched for time and space to continue this.  A shed was identified as a suitable isolation unit and was subsequently approved by Animal health allowing the farmer to sell calves following two clear 60 day tests on the open market. 

Smallholder L had a herd of 50 llamas and phoned to book a badger survey and the infra-red cameras.  The advisor set up the cameras in two locations on the smallholding and carried out a badger survey of the land.  The survey found very few field signs of badger activity, only one disused sett on the land, few runs and no latrines.  The fencing around the Llama paddocks had quite recently been erected and although not badger proof, it was set close to the ground and was quite effective in showing if there was fresh digging to get underneath it.  Despite the lack of obvious field signs which are often seen on farms with high badger populations, the infra-red camera did show badgers crossing the paddocks which gave Smallholder L the incentive to be more vigilant in her attempts to keep them away from her animals and feed store.