Adjustments are being made to routine herd testing for bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Scotland as the second anniversary of official TB freedom (OTF) is reached.

Scottish Government has issued a news release about these changes, which can be viewed on the Scottish Government website.

As part of the adjustments AHVLA is making significant reductions to the number of herds eligible for routine TB testing in Scotland. In the initial implementation period the aim is to exempt ‘low risk’ herds from routine testing beginning with herds that are due a routine test by January 2012. As a consequence, it is estimated that the number of herds receiving a routine herd test in 2012 will be reduced by approximately 30%.

Routine TB tests due on 1 January 2012 were added to OV worklists in July, and farmers were notified about the need to arrange a test in a letter sent in August. The three month testing window, for a test due on 1 January 2012, will then open during October 2011 and the farmer has three months from that date to complete the test.

AHVLA is writing to farmers individually before the testing window opens for those tests which have been exempted from testing in 2012. OV practices that face reductions in their testing loads will be informed by letter.

Scotland was recognised as being officially TB free by the European Commission in September 2009, and OTF status provides the flexibility to design a dedicated and original routine TB surveillance programme for the Scottish national herd, rather than being tied to four yearly routine skin testing.

In March 2010, researchers from Glasgow University were commissioned to produce options for a more effective, targeted surveillance programme, which could make savings for Government and farmers alike, without significantly affecting our ability to detect tuberculosis quickly. The report from the Glasgow team remains available on the Scottish Government website.

On the basis of the results from the Glasgow Report, ‘low risk’ herds must comply with one of the following three criteria:

• herds with fewer than 20 cattle which have had fewer than 2 consignments of cattle moved on from high incidence TB areas (including Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) in the previous 4 years
• herds that slaughter more than 25% of their stock annually and have fewer than 2 consignments of cattle moved on from high incidence TB areas (including Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) in the previous 4 years
• herds that slaughter more than 40% of their stock annually