Defra's Chief Scientist and Chief Vet will be answering question about the badger cull through Twitter today between 12 - 1pm

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Latest data on the incidence of TB in cattle.

These statistics were released today, Wednesday 17th October 2012, according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

The key points relating to July 2012 are :-

• The provisional July 2012 incidence rate is 5.2%, compared to 6.0% in July 2011. However, 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.
• The number of new herd incidents during the period January to July 2012 was 3,018 compared to 3,021 for January to July 2011. The number of tests on officially TB free herds was 45,443 in January to July 2012, compared to 38,051 in January to July 2011.
• The number of cattle compulsorily slaughtered as reactors or direct contacts was 21,512 in January to July 2012, compared to 20,514 in January to July 2011.

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