Anyone who keeps cattle is required by law to have their animals tested for bovine TB.
Cattle are tested at an interval (one or four years) depending on which county the herd is located and the disease risk for that area.
The testing programme confirms the TB disease status of a herd and is important to:
identify which cattle are infected with bovine TB
prevent bovine TB spreading to other cattle and animals
prevent cattle suffering because of infection
protect public health
A Welsh translation of the guidance for cattle keepers in Wales is available.
Published 1 January 2013 Last updated 28 November 2022 +show all updates
The guidance 'Testing for TB in your herd: what this means to you (Scotland' has been updated throughout. The PDF 'Testing for TB in your herd: what this means to you (Scotland)' has been removed. It's been replaced with an accessible HTML attachment.
Added Welsh translation of the guidance: Testing for TB in your herd: what this means to you (Wales).
The Welsh guidance PDF has been replaced with HTML guidance to make this content more accessible. The following sections have also been updated: Testing cattle for bovine TBInconclusive Reactors (IRs) The TB status of your herd Suspension: Officially TB Free status Suspended (OTFS) Withdrawal: Officially TB Free status Withdrawn (OTFW) Records.A new section on the IDEXX Antibody test has been added.
Added translation
Scotland document updated to clarify the testing requirements of a TB breakdown based on the various risk factors associated with that breakdown.
Wales documents updated in relation to OTFW Wales policy change due to come into force from the 1st January 2016.
PDF guidance document for England has been archived and link added to new guidance
AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).