Bovine TB has been on an upward curve in NI for the past three to four years.
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The most recent figures released by DAERA in NI, which relate to November 2017, show that the monthly number of bovine TB reactors has hit levels in NI not seen for 14 years.
Across the month, 1,736 reactor animals were taken off farms, up by more than 300 head on the previous month. In the first 11 months of 2017, the number of TB reactors stands at 14,694, a 39% increase on the same period in 2016, and up 49% on the 2015 figure.
In terms of reactor herds, there were 256 new reactor herds in November 2017 and, in total, 455 herds had reactor animals at a TB test. TB herd incidence (the number of new reactor herds as a proportion of all herds tested) now stands at 9.73%. It means that, in NI, just under 12% of herds are under some form of TB movement restriction.
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Bovine TB has been on an upward curve in NI for the past three to four years. Part of the reason is that DAERA vets have been applying a more severe interpretation of the skin test. But it had been hoped that numbers would have started to level off long before now.
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The most recent figures released by DAERA in NI, which relate to November 2017, show that the monthly number of bovine TB reactors has hit levels in NI not seen for 14 years.
Across the month, 1,736 reactor animals were taken off farms, up by more than 300 head on the previous month. In the first 11 months of 2017, the number of TB reactors stands at 14,694, a 39% increase on the same period in 2016, and up 49% on the 2015 figure.
In terms of reactor herds, there were 256 new reactor herds in November 2017 and, in total, 455 herds had reactor animals at a TB test. TB herd incidence (the number of new reactor herds as a proportion of all herds tested) now stands at 9.73%. It means that, in NI, just under 12% of herds are under some form of TB movement restriction.
Bovine TB has been on an upward curve in NI for the past three to four years. Part of the reason is that DAERA vets have been applying a more severe interpretation of the skin test. But it had been hoped that numbers would have started to level off long before now.
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