29 Aug Health & Safety – abandoning unsafe tests

In the most recent three months of the year, when TB testing has been going flat out, practices have reported just 17 incidents where health and safety at the TB test was of concern. Our impression is that there remains significant under-reporting of health and safety concerns and we would encourage more practices to share information relating to problem tests where possible. It is hoped that through gathering more evidence of issues and concerns we may be able to support practices in finding ways in which safe and efficient presentation of cattle for testing can be taken more seriously by the farming community. We also wish to highlight the dangers of testing with substandard handling
facilities to the Authority so that they can better understand the challenges faced in practice.
All the English regions are very clear that they will support every OV who chooses to abandon an unsafe test and we are working with the Authority to improve the processes that happen after reasonable steps have been taken to carry out the work on more challenging farms. As with most things, the Authority depends on good records being in place if they are to implement enforcement measures. XL Farmcare will help gather all appropriate detail on why a test might have been abandoned and can then work with the practice in circumstances where the facilities available are not acceptable.