22 Mar Reporting of incidents while TB testing.

In completing of tests and test parts in the TOM system, we always want to hear detail of any incidents or accidents that may have occurred. TB testing is a significant disruption on any farm and the handling systems required to manage cattle safely are not always available.

The Farmcare VDP businesses frequently defend the hard and dangerous work carried out by practitioners and their TB testing colleagues, but we are finding that there are fewer and fewer incidents being reported via TOM. We do our best to keep paperwork and hassle to a minimum so that we don’t compound a bad test that all parties wish to forget, but it is very helpful to track what is happening and to pick up on some common themes.

In the most recent twelve-month period, we received a report of an incident on farm in just 3 occasions for every 10,000 test parts completed. This is down from 13 reports per 10,000 test parts in the equivalent period three years ago. Hopefully TB testing is becoming safer, but we are fairly sure that there is a ‘move-on’ mentality in practice especially in areas where you won’t be returning to the same premises for the next four years.

The data we have collated over the last five years with respect to incidents on farm shows that most problems occur in smaller herds and in tests involving the less-frequently handled beef herds. It’s never easy to propose any solutions but we also note that it remains exceptionally unusual for any vet to abandon a test on the grounds of health and safety.

While we are fully aware that abandoning any test means that someone will need to return to try again, we would like to reiterate that Farmcare will support any practice or TB tester that feels that they must walk away from any farm where they feel that their safety is at risk. We always place a note on file (and a warning triangle next to the holding details in TOM) when a health and safety incident has arisen, and we will certainly work with any practice, and with APHA, to resolve issues where animals have not been presented safely for testing. Practices will receive the full instruction fee as well as the head rate for any animals tested before they decide to abandon the job. Remember: it is the duty of the farm staff to present their animals in a safe and efficient manner for you to conduct your TB test. If you are unhappy and feel unsafe, please do not take any undue risks.