TB in Wales: A complicated disease picture

“In South West Wales, there is a lot of dairy farming and a lot of long-term herd breakdowns. There are big, complicated dairy herds with several sites and a lot of movement of animals between those.

“Down the border, although we have some long-term breakdowns and there are some significant dairy herds, the key feature is not long-term breakdowns, it is recurring ones.

“Beef herds go down with TB, they get two clear tests, then they go down again. It is a different picture.”

The different policy responses to this complex disease picture are played out on-farm, with every farmer responding to a TB breakdown in his or her own unique way.

“These policies will have a different impact on different farms,” Dr Fenwick said.

“Some policies which make sense scientifically can be difficult economically.

“Then there is the emotional side of things. We find people who are used to it are emotionally better equipped to cope with it.

“Sometimes people feel like pulling their hair out after many years, but you get others who have never had the problem and they do not believe their cattle have TB."

“You know the chances are they have, and they are crying on the phone, they feel they are suffering something no one else has ever suffered, but they are dealing with something thousands of others have, unfortunately, also experienced.”

Powys farmer and Nuffield scholar Dafydd Saunders-Jones had similar experiences speaking to others about the emotional toll TB takes.

“The thing which had the biggest impact on me was being sat at a table with four farmers, big men, built for rugby, and having them in tears in front of me,” he said.

NFU Cymru Pembrokeshire chairman Jeff Evans has first-hand experience of how the disease affects farmers.

He was forced to get rid of a suckler herd because of a three-year breakdown and has since taken a ruthless approach to inconclusive reactors, actively removing them from his farm.

“There is an inability to plan ahead,” he said.

“You think you are going to do something, but then suddenly you get TB and you have to change tack as you cannot sell your stores.

“We do not plan. We assume we are going to get TB at some point again.”