Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the cost of TB in cattle herds on the UK agri-food industry in each of the last five years.

We don’t hold information on the costs of TB to the agri-food industry. TB currently costs government around £100m per year. Additionally it is estimated to cost English livestock farmers tens of millions of pounds. The average cost to a farmer of each TB herd breakdown in the High Risk Area has been estimated at around £14,000. The average cost to a farmer of each routine TB test has been estimated at around £350.