Will the Minister state how many post-mortem examination of TB reactors, inconclusive reactors, and direct contacts reported ‘non-visible lesions’ in 2018, 2019 and 2020 separately?
Table 1 below sets out the lesion status of animals slaughtered by test result between 2018 and 2020. Further information is provided in the annual surveillance reports published on our website.
Table 1: Lesion status of animals slaughtered by test result, 2018-2020 (a) (b)
|
|
Reactors |
Inconclusive reactors (c) |
Direct Contacts |
|||
|
Year |
Visible lesions |
No visible lesions |
Visible lesions |
No visible lesions |
Visible lesions |
No visible lesions |
|
2018 |
1,294 |
6,650 |
55 |
2,714 |
27 |
731 |
|
2019 |
1,066 |
7,511 |
53 |
3,074 |
36 |
847 |
|
2020 |
1,177 |
7,727 |
35 |
1,206 |
29 |
482 |
Source: Bovine TB Surveillance data correct as at 2 September 2021
- These data may differ slightly with previously published annual surveillance reports due to small revisions.
- There a small number of animals slaughtered where the lesion status is unknown and have not been included in the table above.
- Inconclusive reactors include first time (1xIR), second time (2xIR) and third time inconclusive reactors (3xIR).
It should be noted that the absence of visible lesions at post mortem examination does not mean the animal was not infected with M. bovis, the bovine TB bacteria.
In fact it is a common misconception that the test has incorrectly identified a healthy animal as being infected when lesions are not found at the post mortem examination. This is highly unlikely to be the case given the test’s very high specificity (99.98%). This means it is very good at correctly identifying uninfected cattle, meaning false positives are unlikely.