Rural Payments and Services

The use of a successful test to identify Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) infection quicker and at a lower cost in specified animal samples in Great Britain is to be expanded.

The Animal and Plant Agency’s (APHA) use of the post-mortem TB polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has cut the waiting time for results to just three weeks for slaughterhouse cases and non-bovine farmed animals, helping to remove herd movement restrictions sooner in certain types of TB incident.

Use of this test will now be expanded to cover bTB samples taken from TB test positive cattle, direct contacts and compulsory or privately slaughtered or dead Inconclusive Reactors.

The planned expansion launches on 14 February.

Further information on the PCR test can be found on BovineTB - gov.scot and the TB Hub.