TB must not be allowed to spread across Cumbria say NFU

The North West NFU is urging farmers in Cumbria to rise to the challenge and stop Bovine TB from spreading across the county. This follows the Animal Health announcement today of a ’enhanced surveillance zone’ being confirmed near to Penrith, covering a three kilometre area near to junction 41 of the M6.

Reacting to the news, NFU North West Regional Director Robert Sheasby said: ’This will be a worrying time for local livestock farmers as we have fought long and hard to keep this devastating disease at bay. Our aim now must be to see it contained and we will be working closely with Animal Health and our members locally to ensure everything possible is done to prevent it spreading.’

The new surveillance zone will take in a three kilometre zone around the dairy farm where more than 90 animals had to be slaughtered as a consequence of the discovery. Testing initiated by Animal Health immediately following the TB breakdown found no spread of the disease to neighbouring premises.

Twenty-three farms are within the new zone. Eight farms have already had a mandatory Bovine TB test and the other 15 will be tested within the month. All 23 farms will then be subject to a follow up test in twelve months’ time. In the interim, bovine animals in the zone will be subject to pre-movement testing, a measure which could remain in place for the next year.

NFU Cumbria County Chairman, Robert Craig, who is a dairy farmer from near Carlisle, said: ’The NFU will be working closely with Animal Health to keep this outbreak contained.


’Animal Health cannot explain the origins of this outbreak which is made all the more puzzling due to the fact that the herd with the Bovine TB reactors is closed. For that reason, Animal Health took extreme caution and declared the area an enhanced surveillance zone. Having heard accounts of the emotional and economic cost of what it means to live with Bovine TB, Animal Health’s decision is one I reluctantly have to support as the prospect of seeing Bovine TB spread further across Cumbria is too frightening to contemplate. We now need to work together as an industry and take particular care of where we are sourcing cattle from to help reduce the risk of further cases emerging.’

In addition, there will be wildlife testing in a wider area around the enhanced surveillance zone based on physical boundaries (roads, rivers, forests and urban areas). This means all deer shot or killed in the area will be tested and all badgers that have been killed by passing vehicles.