Earlier this month Defra released the latest information on the number of cattle slaughtered as TB reactors or direct contacts.

On Wednesday 14th November, Defra released statistics which reveal an increase in slaughtering compared to last year and 2010, though levels remain well below 2008 and 2009 tolls.

Although the number of cattle slaughtered was higher this year, at 24,685 compared to 23,477 in 2011, the figures, which measured slaughtering from January through to August, showed the provisional August 2012 incidence rate was 5.1percent, compared to 6.6 percent in August 2011.

The number of tests on officially TB free herds increased from 41,267 to 49,714. Increased testing led to the discovery of 3,353 new herd incidents in the first eight months of the year, compared to 3,312 for the same period in 2011.

Defra suggested the statistics show the complexity of the bovine TB issue and stated "care needs to be taken not to read too much into short term figures, especially as this figure includes a number of unclassified incidents. As such, the incidence rates are subject to further revisions as more tests and their results for the period are input."

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