'Hidden plague' hits 1,000 farms

A backlog of tests on cattle has hit 1,000 farms

A thousand farms are now unable to move cattle because of a tuberculosis crisis that is spreading across the UK.

TB has spread beyond the South West of England to Cumbria and Scotland.

Some farmers have been unable to move their animals for two years because the foot-and-mouth crisis has caused a severe backlog of veterinary inspections.

Ian Johnson, of the National Farmers Union, told BBC News Online: "It's the forgotten plague that everybody conveniently pushes to the back of their minds, but for the farmers involved it's horrendous."

Some have been doubly hit because they were under both foot-and-mouth and TB restrictions

Ian Johnson, NFU

Farmers say the fact that new outbreaks appeared during a ban on livestock movements meant it was not being spread by cattle themselves.

But others say it would not have jumped from the South West to other parts of Britain if badgers were to blame, as scientists suspect.

Mr Johnson said the disease was well-established from Herefordshire and Wiltshire down to Cornwall.

No checks

"In Devon, some have been doubly hit because they were under both foot-and-mouth and TB restrictions."

The foot-and-mouth crisis meant vets could not carry out inspections to give the all-clear to farms where there had been outbreaks.

Badgers are suspected of spreading TB to cows

Without a health check on their herds, farmers can only move calves under six weeks old and individual animals that have been rigorously checked.

But last year's epidemic also stopped a four-year programme to slaughter some badgers to try to see how the disease is spread.

Mr Johnson said: "It's a very distressing situation.

"It's not cattle that are spreading the disease because they weren't moving, so who was it - Father Christmas?

"We don't know because the field tests have not been completed.

'Bunny lovers'

"There's an absence of hard evidence so no one can make a decision about how to deal with it."

Paul Griffith, who farms near Okehampton in Devon, has been banned from moving cattle for about two years because his herd has not been inspected since the disease was first found.

Farmers have already suffered restrictions

"We are unable to move any stock other than for slaughter," he said. "Suddenly it creates an overcrowding situation.

"People are now put on these restrictions, which is a terrible blow to an area like this that has suffered so badly over the last 12 months.

"It's time the people in the ministry listened to the people who understand the problems, and not to a few bunny lovers that really don't understand the severe problem there is.

"We are told it will be a month, two months to clear the backlog up, but at the moment they have not got the numbers on the ground - the vets - to do this work."