7. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's bovine TB eradication plan? OQ56639

When I relaunched the TB eradication programme in 2017, I committed to updating Members of the Senedd annually. The latest written statement I issued was in November 2020 and I will be releasing the next statement on the progress of our TB eradication programme towards the end of this year.

Thank you for your answer, Minister. I'd like to ask you about your tests and testing strategy. As it stands now, some TB-infected cattle are not being detected by Welsh Government's own tests, and this clearly causes great frustration to the farming industry when the First Minister himself tries to heap blame on farmers, as was outlined earlier in this session by my colleague Samuel Kurtz. We're not going to solve the problems if Welsh Government's own tests fail to pick up TB-infected cattle. So, can I ask, Minister, do you recognise this issue? Why aren't TB-infected cattle being detected by the Welsh Government's very own tests, and what are the Welsh Government doing to improve the false negatives to stop the spread of TB?  

I don't think that was what the First Minister did at all. You will have heard me say in my earlier answer to Samuel that what he was referring to was the information that we've been given around the likely causes for increases in the low-incidence TB area. I think M. bovis is a very difficult organism to detect. There is no single test or combination of tests available that has a 100 per cent specificity, that doesn't detect any false positives and has a 100 per cent sensitivity. They can't detect all TB-infected animals. So, we use additional blood tests, for instance, such as the interferon gamma test and the IDEXX antibody test, and we use severe interpretation of the skin test so that the risk of missing infected cattle is minimised. That's the approach that we take in the low and intermediate TB areas of Wales.

I share the concern of everybody here when farms have an outbreak of TB. We know that it's cruel, that it's traumatic, and it's a disease that we want to eradicate. I've only ever disagreed with Senedd Members about culling badgers; many badgers have been culled over many decades, and yet TB still remains. We have, however, Minister, made good progress and there's been a 44 per cent reduction in incidence in the last decade. You mentioned a cattle vaccination programme that was going on—it was a pioneer—and I would like to hear if you've got any update regarding that vaccination programme.

Thank you. Absolutely, it is a very distressing time for farmers. I know how distressing it is when they have a TB breakdown. You'll be aware that we've got those bespoke action plans as well, where we deal with those really difficult breakdowns. You mentioned the field tests that we're carrying out in relation to this vaccine. The aim of the project, once we've had those successful field trials, is to apply to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate so we can get marketing authorisations for both the cattle BCG vaccine and the DIVA skin tests by 2025. I haven't got an update, probably, from the last one I gave, but we are hoping to complete the field trials by the end of 2024. But what we will do is bring forward progress reports as we go over the next two to three years.

I thank the Minister. We will now take a short break to allow for changeovers in the Chamber.

Plenary was suspended at 15:13.

The Senedd reconvened at 15:24, with the Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) in the Chair.