Incidence Of TB In UK Cattle May Be Falling

UK - Incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in the UK may be falling, suggest provisional statistics released by Defra.

17 June 2010

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Europe

These statistics are obtained from the Animal Health’s work management IT support system (Vetnet), used for the administration of TB testing. They are a snapshot of the position on the date on which they were extracted. The data are subject to revision until all test results are available. In particular figures from 2007 onwards will be subject to further revision as various final data validation exercises are carried out.

The key points from this release are:

The provisional March 2010 estimate lies below the incidence rate for March 2009. However, care needs to be taken not to read too much into a single month's figure, especially as this figure includes a high number of unclassified incidents. As such the incidence rates are subject to further revisions as more tests and their results are input.
Provisional statistics show a 10 per cent decrease in the number of new TB incidents in March 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. Combined with an increase in the number of herds tested over the same period, this equates to a provisional overall decrease in the TB incidence rate (new TB incidents, as a proportion of tests on unrestricted herds) of 14 per cent.
The provisional average confirmed incidence rate (confirmed new TB incidents, as a proportion of tests on unrestricted herds) was 3.8 per cent for March 2010, compared to four per cent for the same period in 2009.

The charts published in this statistical notice, together with the equivalent figures from January 1996 onwards, are also available in spreadsheet format on the Defra web site at :http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/foodfarm/landuselivestock/cattletb/documents/tbweb.xls