LAUSR

You could be forgiven for thinking that little changes in the management of bovine TB (bTB). At last week’s British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) conference, an experienced cattle vet told a panel discussion on tackling bTB that he was reminded of a similar discussion he’d had 12 years previously. ‘I’ve got a strong case of deja vu,’ he said. ‘It’s so frustrating.’ There is much to support the view that the whole set-up feels more than a little jaded. The standard skin test – the primary screening test for TB in cattle – is old. Vets have been using it since 1948. The rules around using it are old. The feeling that the government isn’t making life easy for vets working to manage the disease is a perpetual gripe. And even the electronic reporting mechanism for test results is unreliable – one vet complained that it …