A new report has calculated the financial impact of bovine TB on British farms, showing that a breakdown costs on average £6,600.
Defra has published a report on behalf of England, Scotland and Wales which highlights the financial impact of TB on the beef and dairy sectors.
The report shows the cost of a TB breakdown directly borne by cattle farms varies significantly, with a median value of around £6,600 across all farms in the survey.
Across England and Wales median costs for herds of more than 300 cattle are around £18,600 whilst those for herds up to 50 cattle are around £1,700.
Median costs for chronic breakdowns over 273 days are around £16,000, the report shows.
Researchers collected data on farms that had suffered a bovine TB breakdown between 1 January 2012 and 31 October 2018.
This led to a final sample achieved of 1,604 farmers located in the High Risk and Edge areas of England and the High (HTBA) and Intermediate (ITBA) TB areas of Wales
Defra has also released the latest statistics on bTB in England, which show the overall number of new herd incidents of the disease down by 10% in the last year.
It also highlights a 15% reduction in the number of herds not officially free of the disease due to an incident.
For Wales, the overall number of new herd incidents is down by 10%, with an 11% reduction in the number of herds not officially free of the disease due to an incident.
