From Bob Simpson, Chair of Bucks Badger Group 7 MAR 2018
More bad news following on from the previous post regarding license applications for Oxfordshire and Berkshire! I just looked up the bTB risk area map (www.gov.uk/guidance/bovine-tb-testing-intervals-2018) and Oxfordshire is now part high risk, Berks is higher edge risk, (thus the applications). Also Bucks now has additional testing around the (more frequent) new outbreaks as it is in the ‘edge’ area. See www.ibtb.co.ukinteractive bTB map which shows far more bTB than a few years ago… The more frequent outbreaks are probably because they are now doing more accurate (Interferon gamma) cattle testing in the edge areas and not because there is more bTB in cattle.
PS dark blue dots are single outbreaks and you can zoom in to find out the farm locations at : http://ibtb.co.uk
