A free service offering farmers biosecurity advice to prevent the spread of TB has been rated excellent and useful by the majority of farmers who accessed it.

Sarah Tomlinson, technical director at the TB Advisory Service (TBAS) – which offers livestock farmers in England free biosecurity advice to protect their animals from TB – is delighted to share a report highlighting the success of the service between 2017 and 2021.

“The report shows 2,280 farms were visited and 2,400 farmers were given over-the-phone advice from TBAS over the four-year-period with 90% rating the service as excellent and 92% saying the recommendations given to them were very useful,” adds Mrs Tomlinson.

“This is really encouraging as it shows TBAS has provided value to thousands of farmers and has hopefully empowered them to see TB as an infectious disease that they can take steps to control, rather than something completely out of their control.”

Mrs Tomlinson says the service is designed to show farmers that while there are things they can’t control, there are things they can control on their own farm.

She explains:

“TBAS is proactive; we’re trying to reduce the risk of the next TB breakdown on a farm by helping farmers to implement certain measures, but it’s also a tool to go onto a farm where there is a breakdown.”

The report found the five most common recommendations given to farmers at the end of a visit were: install wildlife cameras; use the ibTB website prior to purchasing animals to ascertain the time of a farm’s last TB breakdown; add barriers to the bottom of gates and doors; use electric fencing to protect routes of entry; and feed animals in badger-proof troughs.

“Each farmer was given four recommendations and the report shows 43% had completed three of them by their six-month follow-up call, and just over half had completed two of the tasks,” says Mrs Tomlinson.

She is keen to remind the industry that TBAS is available to all farm businesses in England and TB susceptible species including camelids and goats. Anyone interested in the service can ask their vet for a referral or get information online at www.tbas.org.uk

“The first visit takes a couple of hours. We talk about TB as an infectious disease. We look at how TB could arrive and circulate on-farm, and if it’s already on-farm we look at how we can help get the holding clear quicker and stop it coming back,” adds Mrs Tomlinson.

“With Covid we learned that doing small seemingly insignificant things like wearing facemasks and washing our hands can have an impact on a national disease control.

“It’s the same with TB, little things farmers can do, like shutting their feed store doors at night, will help reduce their own risk but can also have an impact on national TB eradication.”

As well as free farm visits, TBAS offers free over the-phone advice on 01306 779410.