Bovine Tuberculosis

Countess of Mar Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

The noble Lord will not be surprised to hear that I do not agree with the last thing he said, but he might be interested to know that bull pedigree and TB data analysis of Holstein Friesian bulls, carried out by the Roslin Institute for Defra, have shown clear evidence of genetic variation to bovine TB susceptibility with a moderate heritability of 18%. However, no link was found in those studies between selection of bulls for milk yield and greater susceptibility to bovine TB. The study authors went on to conclude that,

“selection for milk yield is unlikely to have contributed to the current”,

bovine TB epidemic in Great Britain.

[The Countess of Mar (CB)]

My Lords, is it not the case that the bulls chosen at insemination centres are kept to the very highest health standards and are not exposed to TB in any way, and that artificial insemination is probably safer than the ordinary method of insemination?

[Lord De Mauley]

The noble Countess makes an extremely good point, and I cannot disagree with what she says.