tb on the farm

I've been going through a tough few months on the farm lately. It all started last August when a cow sent for slaughter showed up with TB in a post mortem, then another one in September. So out of 6 cows sent for slaughter, 2 showed up with TB.
We needed to do a full herd test, I wanted to do it before the winter feeding started, but Dept of Ag rules wouldn't allow this until 60 days after the last reactor had been removed from the farm. We did a test in November and 18 cattle showed up with TB. I was a bit surprised, I thought maybe we'd have 5 or 6 reactors. I couldn't understand where it was coming from. We all know that TB can spread from wildlife to cattle, but there are no deer in this area, ok there is some badger activity, but none of the setts were active. I have never bought in female cattle, and the only males I bought in since our last TB episode in 2006 was 2 stock bulls, they passed the test in November.
So 18 cattle were valued by an independent valuer who had been given 'valuation guidelines' by the Dept. I agreed to the valuations and 18 cattle, mostly in calf cows, went for slaughter at a local meat plant. I went to see them being killed, but when I tried to ask questions about whether all the cows were in calf, or if any of them had lesions I was told 'Your local DVO will tell you anything you need to know' then I got told where to stand by an over-bearing Russian bitch. I watched as my next crop of calves disappeared down a chute.
I got a cheque for the cattle about 2 days later, it was about 1/3 the value put on them by the 'independent valuation'. The balance came from the Dept about a month later when all the necessary paperwork, including a tax clearance cert had been forwarded on to the local DVO.
So the wife thinks it's fucking brilliant, we'll have money for christmas, be able to pay a few bills, pay bank arrears etc. But what about next fucking christmas, and the one after that? I ask her......
Needless to say many rows ensued. Later we found out 13 out of the 18 cattle showed up with lesions. This was quite high, so the vet from the Dept. suggested that we really should do a blood test for TB at the next herd test. Ok, I said, in my ignorance, I wanted to get to the bottom of this. The vet went on to explain that the blood test is only about 85% perhaps 92% accurate, it does throw up a few false positives. I agreed to go ahead with the blood test on all animals over 12 months old at the next test.
Roll on February, we had to wait 60 days after the last reactor was removed from the herd. By this time a lot of the cows were heavy in calf. Our own vet did the skin test, and the Dept vet took blood samples from all the cows, stock bulls and heifers over 12 months, 79 I think in total for blood test. I remember it was snowing and our own vet got delayed that morning.
So 3 days later we had the results of the blood test, out of the 79 tested 24 had failed, including one of my stock bulls. I was sort of in a semi-automatic daze as we did the skin test. I remember the Dept. vet asking me 'Do you love this cow'? What he meant was she was borderline on the blood test, and her skin test was clear, she was probably a false positive on the blood test. I was going to say something smart like I love all my cows, but I bit my tongue and bravely/stupidly said something like, let her off (for slaughter). Remember I still wanted to eliminate this disease from my farm as quickly as possible. So the final tally that day, 36 more cattle gone. The worrying part was one weanling bull was gone too, this group of cattle were all clear in the previous test. So a week went by, I sorted out all the reactors from the rest of the herd. The 'independent' valuer came again. By this time cattle prices in the mart had risen considerably since the last test, but the valuations didn't reflect this, we eventually thrashed it out, I agreed to the valuations, yes you guessed it, I wanted to get to the end of this as quickly as possible. 3 weeks after the test 35 out of the 36 reactors went off to the same local meat plant. One cow didn't go because she was calving that morning. She went a week later. Needless to say I didn't go to the meat plant that day to see my future sliding down a chute. However I did go to another meat plant later that week with 3 bulls for slaughter. Strangely enough one of these showed up with lesions, which later showed up as being TB positive after being cultured. Now this bull passed a test in November, passed a test in February and yet still had TB bad enough to show up with lesions. I am not really looking forward to my next TB test in early May.
So calving of my remaining 17 cows continues, slowly. I have bought another Aberdeen angus bull, there is still about 30 heifers that will be fit for service this year, all going well next year might be better. The Dept vet wants to do the ELIZA test at the next herd test, I think I have no option but to do it, after all I want to get to the bottom of this........