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Bovine TB in milk as well as beef


Still Waters

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Over the weekend, the Sunday Times revealed that raw meat from 28,000 animals a year is sold into the food chain by the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

Now it can be revealed that milk from the thousands of cattle infected with TB may have also entered the food chain.

http://www.telegraph...ll-as-beef.html

http://www.telegraph...department.html

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I am fairly ambiguous as to forming a response to this topic...

IF the meat is considered safe for human consumption then the greater waste would be not to release it for such. There would appear to be no documented accounts of bTB actually being transmitted in this manner

The Farmer who deliberately sold on Milk from bTB infected cattle is quite another matter however, especially with the current "fad" of drinking "Raw" milk (why people would want to do so however is beyond my comprehension).

My only concern would be if the Fillet was being processed into Steak Tartare which is always eaten raw, but there is no suggestion of this.

Maybe it is just sensationalist Editorial to sell a few more newspapers...

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I know a lot of fingers are going to be pointed at the farmers but its in the abattoirs when they inspect the carcass they are letting TB animals through rather than condemning those with TB lesions on their lungs. Also the current tests are not nearly accurate enough despite what the high ups would have you believe. Its little more than a flip of a coin as to the diagnosis. Too many sick are slipping through and passing it on and too many healthy animals misdiagnosed are put to slaughter.

Some of my neighbors were shut down to be tested and the stress won over them and they sadly committed suicide although we we found out their herds were clear.

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I know a lot of fingers are going to be pointed at the farmers but its in the abattoirs when they inspect the carcass they are letting TB animals through rather than condemning those with TB lesions on their lungs. Also the current tests are not nearly accurate enough despite what the high ups would have you believe. Its little more than a flip of a coin as to the diagnosis. Too many sick are slipping through and passing it on and too many healthy animals misdiagnosed are put to slaughter.

Some of my neighbors were shut down to be tested and the stress won over them and they sadly committed suicide although we we found out their herds were clear.

No, it is not a flip of the coin, TB is easily and accurately diagnosed. This is not Rocket Science. To begin with you have symptomatic conditions with the cattle, hard to ignore unless you want to. Misdiagnosis only happens when simply based on symptomatic pathology, blood testing is definitive and extremely accurate.

Quite frankly, the DEFRA Compensation rates whether Beef or Dairy Sector are very generous, even for those farmers who fail to meet their obligations in terms of regular Veterinary Testing.

Being shut down for 2 weeks whilst the cultures are developing are no cause for suicide, If the herd was infected then the compensation was more than generous enough to build up a disease free herd, then some

Edited by keithisco
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No, it is not a flip of the coin, TB is easily and accurately diagnosed. This is not Rocket Science. To begin with you have symptomatic conditions with the cattle, hard to ignore unless you want to. Misdiagnosis only happens when simply based on symptomatic pathology, blood testing is definitive and extremely accurate.

Quite frankly, the DEFRA Compensation rates whether Beef or Dairy Sector are very generous, even for those farmers who fail to meet their obligations in terms of regular Veterinary Testing.

Being shut down for 2 weeks whilst the cultures are developing are no cause for suicide, If the herd was infected then the compensation was more than generous enough to build up a disease free herd, then some

The test used is a skin test.They inject two spots, one with bovine and one with avian TB antigens. Then judging by the size of the lumps they can diagnose the animal.

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/tb/control/tuberculin.htm

The animals can look completely healthy as the obvious symptoms can take years to develop and only be noticed when lesions are found in the abattoir.

Over here herds are shut down until you get two consecutive clear tests, Once any animals testing positive are culled, the next test will be within 60 days and the second within another 60 days etc

http://www.dardni.gov.uk/tb-in-your-herd-booklet.pdf

The fact that when the farms working well you are financially already on a knife edge these months of restrictions mount up into huge amounts of debt pouring thousands of gallons of milk away and not being able to sell stock so you have to pay for additional feeding for this time. No compensation is given for these costs.

Compensation would still not be enough, hence why so many quit after BSE and Foot and mouth. A dairy herd you build over a lifetime is irreplaceable and one cow misdiagnosed and culled is till a blow. The big dairys' might spend £1500 on a heifer and for a good bull thousands more. On a small farm like mine with 40 milkers and 40 sucklers the loss of a small number would be crippling.

The last two guys that died there recently were restricted for months and they were hundreds of thousands of pounds in debt with the bank, couldn't afford fodder or fertilizer to grow their own. Before they went down in the test they were restricted repeatedly due to neighbouring farms going down.

http://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/assets/4200

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The test used is a skin test.They inject two spots, one with bovine and one with avian TB antigens. Then judging by the size of the lumps they can diagnose the animal.

http://archive.defra.../tuberculin.htm

The animals can look completely healthy as the obvious symptoms can take years to develop and only be noticed when lesions are found in the abattoir.

Over here herds are shut down until you get two consecutive clear tests, Once any animals testing positive are culled, the next test will be within 60 days and the second within another 60 days etc

http://www.dardni.go...erd-booklet.pdf

The fact that when the farms working well you are financially already on a knife edge these months of restrictions mount up into huge amounts of debt pouring thousands of gallons of milk away and not being able to sell stock so you have to pay for additional feeding for this time. No compensation is given for these costs.

Compensation would still not be enough, hence why so many quit after BSE and Foot and mouth. A dairy herd you build over a lifetime is irreplaceable and one cow misdiagnosed and culled is till a blow. The big dairys' might spend £1500 on a heifer and for a good bull thousands more. On a small farm like mine with 40 milkers and 40 sucklers the loss of a small number would be crippling.

The last two guys that died there recently were restricted for months and they were hundreds of thousands of pounds in debt with the bank, couldn't afford fodder or fertilizer to grow their own. Before they went down in the test they were restricted repeatedly due to neighbouring farms going down.

http://www.tbfreeeng....uk/assets/4200

You dont use Gamma Interferon Blood testing to confirm a case? Dont apply to FCN?

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You dont use Gamma Interferon Blood testing to confirm a case? Dont apply to FCN?

The good old heated slide test is really all that is needed... been around since Paul Ehrlich invented it about a century ago.

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I believe over here the

You dont use Gamma Interferon Blood testing to confirm a case? Dont apply to FCN?

I believe over here they use Gamma Interferon Blood testing rarely, only in high risk areas and for testing animals to be exported, but most only get the skin test and if the animals has a positive reaction its killed, even if there is no TB in it.

The test is affected by so many other factors they don't tell you about. My PhD supervisor, a parasitologist was telling me how TB infected animals test negative when infected with Liver fluke so depending on the time of year the animals are tested, many TB positive animals may escape diagnosis.

Edited by Farmerboy
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