Kit Heawood A new contract has recently been signed for provision of services by the TB Advisory Service (‘TBAS’ for short). TBAS is delivering on-farm visits and telephone advice to farmers in England about how to protect their herds/flocks from bTB.
The overall aim of the service is to work with farmers to reduce the incidence and severity of TB breakdowns in England, supporting delivery of the Government’s Strategy for achieving Officially TB Free status. This will be achieved by providing tailored one-to-one on-farm and telephone advice on biosecurity to improve resilience to bTB in infected herds/flocks and to protect uninfected herds/flocks from infection with bTB.
Advice will also cover how to reduce TB risk from movements of cattle and farmed non-bovine animals, as well as specific advice on trading options for TB-restricted farms. Unlike the previous TBAS, which covered the High Risk and Edge Areas only, the new service has been extended to the whole of England. The new TBAS also provides advice to keepers of farmed non-bovine animals (South American camelids, goats, deer, pigs, sheep) – under the previous contract only cattle keepers could access the service. Further details can be found at: tbas.org.uk.