Submission of TB test results should always be checked thoroughly by the responsible OV because the TB test chart is in reality a veterinary certificate of fact. APHA therefore have little sympathy for mistakes made with dates or identities and it seems likely that practices making frequent amends to previously submitted data may soon fall under closer scrutiny.

Around one in every fifty tasks submitted nationally are subsequently amended via a datafix although in some months this can rise to as many as one in twenty test submissions in certain regions.

The data tells us that the most frequent reason for a datafix request is that an animal has been submitted as being clear in a test when it should have been recorded as not tested at all. We understand that this is because OVs find themselves leaving a farm before all record information has been made available to them by the farmer. While we appreciate that many practices have a group of clients where this degree of disorganisation is somewhat inevitable, it is worth knowing that it could well be the OV that will be suffer any consequences as a result

A further scenario reported to us relates to untagged animals. We would once again urge all OVs to ensure that they are familiar with the techniques available that allow the OV to mark untagged animals themselves and then to use that mark alongside the task WSA number to record the test results within SAM. It may also be worth putting in place systems to ensure that tags are available to fit on day two of the test after having discovered the problems on day one.

Obviously reconciliation of all animals against the CTS record for that farm then becomes a significant challenge and both the BCVA leadership and the XL Farmcare regional teams have frequently attempted to raise these issues with APHA operational staff. They seem to have little sympathy and believe that OVs should put more pressure on farms to ensure that all animals, and their identity records, are presented efficiently at the time of the statutory test.