Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Busybee — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 21:16:23 GMT

We're in an annual testing area but the majority of farms are on 60 day testing or manage to make it to the 6 month test before going under again.

Being in mixed practice, my weeks vary greatly - some weeks I don't do any testing, others, I can test 400 a week. On the bigger, more organised farms, I can test up 80 an hour; on others, it can take an hour to do 10! Hourly charging would be great on these!

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Lawrence Brown — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 10:10:23 GMT

Thanks vs0u, this is more along the lines of what I'm looking for. Still awaiting response from APHA...

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Iain Richards — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 09:45:57 GMT

An advantage of the new contract is that if conditions are appalling, the vets can charge to redo the test.

There is an impeccable logic to cost and responsibility sharing, not just for TB, and it was debated only a few years ago. Sadly nothing happened.

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Thomas Johnson — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 08:41:21 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

I'd be happy charging testing out at our hourly rate. I bet it would be amazing how better organised people were when testing. Some just take the piss. 4 year testing is a long time to forget how bad it was last time so no investment in handling facilities/staff etc.

[/quote]

Going back 12 years to my first job on the Worcestershire/Shropshire border all farms were moved on to annual testing, and we usually had about 10 farms on short interval (60 day) testing, and it was very noticeable how much more efficient the farmers got at organising handling facilities and staffing, and although they weren't paying for my time most of the bigger farms were paying for extra staff to help with the test. I was usually testing 300 cattle a week...

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:53:34 GMT

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

macflea — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:09:59 GMT

Interesting here in ireland the testing is paid for by the farmer. If he is locked up with tb , it is the Dep of ag that pays for the reactor tests and the farmer pays for the one he goes clear on.

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:03:37 GMT

[quote user="macflea"]Who pays for testing in the UK? Farmer or defra?[/quote]

DEFRA pays XL Farmcare who won the contract as they subcontract the work back to private vets working as subcontractors.

[quote user="macflea"]Any testing vets on here how many cattle do you test per year?[/quote]

Not many as I have a lot of routine visits. I have tested about 300 cows over the last 3 years....

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

macflea — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:00:26 GMT

Who pays for testing in the UK? Farmer or defra?

If it is the farmer ,i would say the NFU would know what their farming members are paying for testing in the different regions of the UK .

Any testing vets on here how many cattle do you test per year?

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 23:29:54 GMT

[quote user="vs0u "]Could you ask XL vets what they get paid per skin test? presumably it's a standard amount?[/quote]

Nope - different regions are on different pay structures. I believe its a condition of the contract that I can't share the amounts paid.

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

vs0u — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 18:46:09 GMT

This site has a lot of info

http://www.bovinetb.info/

but not all of it that up to date.

Could you ask XL vets what they get paid per skin test? presumably it's a standard amount?

APHA might not have a price per test for IFNG as presumably the APHA vets go out and do the sampling as part of their job and the testing gets done by someone else in a lab as part of their job.

The Bovigam kit works out about £5 per sample (not inc labour)

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Lawrence Brown — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:51:43 GMT

Thanks Iain, I would be interested to know the number of IFN tests carried out annually and the individual test costs. I've found financial info for the bigger picture (cost to the UK taxpayer over the next decade etc) but interested to know the average diagnostic fee for each test carried out, essentially just the list price for one test (if it is that simple). Have looked through a lot of the gov.uk and tbhub.co.uk but struggling to find this information. Tried ringing defra helpline but was told to get in touch by email.

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Iain Richards — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:28:50 GMT

You'll be aware that testing in England was part of a tender, so finding out the cost could be difficult. The rates DEFRA paid prior to 2014/15 should be in the public domain. Gamma-interfereon was only done by DEFRA, so the cost will be in their info somewhere.

Why do you need to know?

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Lawrence Brown — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 14:23:09 GMT

both would be great, but in particular the cost price of the individual tests.

RE: Bovine Tuberculosis Testing

Sophie Aylett — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 13:38:05 GMT

Do you mean costs and financial implications to farmers or vets?