Defra has today published figures showing that more than 38,000 cattle were slaughtered because of bovine TB in Britain in 2012.
The increase in cattle slaughterings and new herds affected can be partly attributed to an increase in TB testing levels last year. Nevertheless, the 38,010 toll represents an increase of approximately 10 per cent on the 2011 figure of 34,668 and is the third highest figure recorded in recent times. The peak remians the 2009 figure of just under 40,000 cattle.
The number of tests on officially TB free herds during 2012 was 73,627 compared with 62,481 in 2011, while the number of cattle tested topped 8 million, compared with 7.5m in 2011.
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