University of Exeter expert urges Government and industry to step up efforts to eliminate Bovine TB

The Government and industry need to step up efforts to eliminate Bovine TB through better testing, vaccinations for badgers and cattle and tougher biosecurity, a University of Exeter expert has said.

Michael Winter is a member of the Government’s strategy review group chaired by Charles Godfray, which recently published an update to their influential 2018 report and called for a “mindset of defeating rather than managing” the disease.

It says the goal of eradicating the Bovine TB by 2038 is very challenging but achievable. “All tools” will be needed to do this, including leadership and collaboration from government, the industry and all interested groups and adequate finance for disease control.

This will require a stepping up of urgency and attention and a relentless focus on reducing the prevalence of a disease that has blighted livestock farming for too long. The Government has pledged to end badger culling during this Parliament.

The expert panel has said the poor take up of on-farm biosecurity measures and the extent of trading in often high-risk cattle is severely hampering disease control measures.

There has been significant progress in the past decade, but their report says there is “only a small chance” of making England Bovine TB free by 2038 “without a step change in the urgency with which the issue is treated and the resources devoted to eradication”.

Considerable effort will be required to scale-up vaccination so that it becomes a viable tool at scale. A better understanding of badger ecology and epidemiology is required to design vaccination campaigns, and economies of scale need to be realised to make vaccination financially viable.

The panel found that bovine TB control is suffering from lack of investment in Defra/APHA and in the local authorities that play a critical role in compliance.

The report says: “It is essential that the problem of bovine TB is co-owned by the government and the industry. This requires leadership and a willingness to move beyond long-held positions by government, the industry and wildlife NGOs.”

It also says the disease is not receiving the “management attention” required to achieve the target of eradication by 2038. The  strategy should be led by someone with a more visible and public-facing role.

The panel also backs the move to more sensitive testing for surveillance in the High Risk Area (HRA) and Edge Area (EA) to enable the detection of infections in these regions as early as possible. They recommend consideration of introducing six-monthly testing in whole of the EA. The use of Approved Tuberculin Testers (ATTs) is important in developing the most cost-effective methods of surveillance and diagnosis.

The report, submitted to ministers, is an update of the the group’s 2018 report.

Professor Winter said “it was fascinating to work on this review following my involvement in 2018.. The Government and industry need to step up efforts across the board to eliminate this disease from better testing to vaccinations for badgers and cattle to tougher biosecurity.”  

The review group chaired by Professor Sir Charles Godfray CBE FRS is also made up of Professor Glyn Hewinson CBE FLSW; Professor Sir Bernard Silverman FRS and Professor James Wood OBE.