Anyone know how TB testing is organised during Covid 19?

[headscratcher]

How are farmers [especially sole farmers] treated during the present Covid 19 crisis vis-a-vis TB testing? Do the testing team wear PPE to stop the transmission of Covid 19 disease to the farmer? Is the Farmer advised about or supplied with protective gear?

 

[vantage]

We all already wear gloves, distancing shouldn’t be a problem. Usually we stop for breakfast after the milkers, vet will have to bring his own coffee I presume. No stopping here in Wales.

 

[pembsarable]

TB testing here next week. Vet in full PPE. Me in full PPE. Must keep 2 - 3 m apart, which is easy enough as I will send cattle down the race and vet deals with crush and testing. Everything " touched" around crush disinfected after. Only query raised by Vet practice has been the regarding very young calves. In some instances they have had to have the vet in a pen on their own catching and jabbing but we have a youngstock crush and will form a small narrow race for the young calves. Vets were happy with that way around things.

 

[Steevo]

Do you need to keep the animals 2m apart?

 

[Tarw Coch]

If you can not safely complete your Tb test due to social distancing requirements you can postpone your Tb test , as far as I know, until after cv19 without penalty however after the due test date you will be subject to movement restrictions so it is in your interest to make it work if you can

 

[Princess Pooper]

How are farmers [especially sole farmers] treated during the present Covid 19 crisis vis-a-vis TB testing? Do the testing team wear PPE to stop the transmission of Covid 19 disease to the farmer? Is the Farmer advised about or supplied with protective gear?

There is some guidance on the TB hub I think - although looking at your name you might be in Wales and not sure if advice is the same - a location in your profile saves people having to guess where you are!. We are testing next week, will be rigging up a race for a small group of 3 month old calves, run them in and then hope vet can cope with them. All larger stock we should be OK to keep 2m away although will take longer with a lot of stepping forward and back as we normally operate the crush as it's a bit fiddly. So no we are not wearing masks but will wear gloves and also have sanitiser. Biggest problem is probably going to be the milkers who often need a lot of shoving to get them to put their head into the yolk of the crush.

 

[Av Gorritt]

We've just had ours , reading it tomorrow, no problem , the vet came with full armour after requesting total 2 metre distancing . when she went she spent an age at the yard overflow trough with bucket, sponge, brush, disinfectant , sanitiser , the lot . So all went well so far , tomorrow's the crunch time !

 

[gone up the hill]

We've just had ours , reading it tomorrow, no problem , the vet came with full armour after requesting total 2 metre distancing . when she went she spent an age at the yard overflow trough with bucket, sponge, brush, disinfectant , sanitiser , the lot . So all went well so far , tomorrow's the crunch time !

Unless you never leave your farm/ have anyone else on farm/ have no delivery's of food/ post/ parts/ livestock feed etc etc then what you did is pointless unless you apply that cleaning routine to everything every day! ( including say gates on the roadside that someone else might have touched )

Wear gloves and stay 2 meters apart, no point doing anything else on farm unless you are on the at risk group/ over 70 etc.

But if you are due a test then get it done, history in 2001 showed if you have a TB problem in your herd the longer the herd is untested the worse your cattle losses/ the problem will be.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Read the bliddy post ! I said what SHE did , not what WE did!

 

[gone up the hill]

Read the bliddy post ! I said what SHE did , not what WE did!

Complete waste of time if she was wearing gloves and didn't touch her skin/face etc when testing, if she did then maybe worth doing but only if your going to be using the crush etc straight after she had gone.

 

[Whitepeak]

We are reading our test this afternoon. Vets only sent the lay tester (we were due to take bloods for johnes etc at the same time) who wore gloves and the usual protective gear. She operated the yoke and we kept our distance from her.
Same with the ministry vet who came to do a brucellosis blood test yesterday. He had the full gear, and the department had carried out a full risk assessment over the phone before he came. He did admit he thought it all a bit daft as he believed he was more at risk doing his weekly shop than going on farm testing. But if we are to carry on testing we need to follow the guidance.

 

[flowerpot]

TB testing taking place outside as I type. My presence is not required as there are enough helpers. Social distancing seems to be OK, no cups of tea today.