A free service offering farmers biosecurity advice to prevent the spread of TB has been rated excellent and useful by the majority of farmers who accessed it.

Sarah Tomlinson, technical director at the TB Advisory Service (TBAS), which offers livestock farmers in England free biosecurity advice to protect their animals from TB, said she is delighted to share a report highlighting the success of the service between 2017 and 2021.

“The report shows 2,280 farms were visited and 2,400 farmers were given over-the-phone advice from TBAS over the four-year-period with 90% rating the service as excellent and 92% saying the recommendations given to them were very useful,” Mrs Tomlinson said.

“This is really encouraging as it shows TBAS has provided value to thousands of farmers and has hopefully empowered them to see TB as an infectious disease that they can take steps to control, rather than something completely out of their control.”

Mrs Tomlinson said the service is designed to show farmers that while there are things they can’t control, there are things they can control on their own farm.

She explains: “TBAS is proactive; we’re trying to reduce the risk of the next TB breakdown on a farm by helping farmers to implement certain measures, but it’s also a tool to go onto a farm where there is a breakdown.”