Best practices to protect your herd against TB
Roisin Scully, KT Masters Student, Teagasc Ballinrobe, shares key areas to manage within your farm gate to reduce the incidence of TB.
Incidents of bovine tuberculosis (TB) have been reported to be increasing, even within the last year, despite mandatory herd testing. While many of these incidents have been seen in the dairy sector due to herd expansion in recent years, farms that buy in stock have also been hit the hardest.
Many farmers may have questions in relation to the testing and the new TB testing restrictions introduced last year. But this article will concentrate on areas to manage within the farm-gate to reduce the incidence of TB. Keeping a closed herd is recommended, but not always possible so what other management tips can be used?
Buying management
When buying stock, it is important to ask the status of the herd. This includes asking when was the last TB test and if there were any breakdowns in the last few years. This can be used for other diseases also. Once the animals arrive on your farm, they should be isolated -ideally for 28 days - and monitored for any signs of illness.
In the yard
Remembering to do the simple things right is key here. Thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting sheds is already common practice but it is crucial to nail down washing underneath bars, drinking troughs and hard to reach areas such as around the trough and corners. As well as power washing the pens, the feed passage should also be included. You should always use DAFM approved disinfectants and allow enough time for them to dry in before introducing stock again.
Limiting visitors to the farm can also reduce exposure. Most farms will have a footbath for boots but keeping traffic to a minimum is important too. Farms that use contractors for most machinery work are at high risk of exposure to infection. The tractor and slurry tank could be coming from an infected farm. It may be useful to ask contractors to clean equipment regularly and even for farmers themselves to thoroughly clean and disinfect their own equipment, especially slurry tanks and dung spreaders as TB is found in faeces, urine, saliva and milk, most of which end up in the slatted tank or dungstead.
In the field
If slurry or dung has been spread, it is best practice to leave that field as long as possible before grazing to ensure there is no live TB bacteria available to infect cattle.
Raising drinking troughs to prevent wildlife using them will also limit spread of infection. Raising mineral lick buckets and not leaving them in fields for extended periods of time similarly helps. Keeping a good boundary maintained between neighbour’s fields is another simple practice and ideally farms would not share handling facilities and equipment.
Herd management
It is possible to breed for resistance against TB. ICBF use a traffic light system to indicate more prone animals that also includes liver fluke. Red indicates highest predicted prevalence of infection, yellow is average and green is lowest. Other protocols such as culling older animals or animals that were inconclusive in previous herd tests will help reduce the incidence of TB on your farm.
While most of these routines may not be new to farmers, it is important to be strict in implementation of them. Just last year saw further TB Testing Restrictions introduced. These new restrictions and more TB related information and videos can be viewed on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s website, available by clicking here.