February 16, 2021 6:20 am
At the recent dairy tech event held by The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF), Sarah Tomlinson a vet based in Derbyshire. Discussed the current pitfalls of the Mycobacterium bovis (TB) testing system currently used in the UK and Ireland.
Sarah stated that the tuberculin skin test (also known as the Mantoux tuberculin test) is only at best 80% accurate, meaning that 20% of animals that should test positive don’t.
She also stated that the gamma blood test (also known as the interferon-gamma test) misses one in ten animals that should test positive.
Sarah believes that this may play a role in herd going clear after completing their testing regime and then having a reactor during a follow up test.