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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average cost to the public purse was of vets fees for testing cattle herds for bovine tuberculosis in 2023 and 2024.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) holds contracts with regional Delivery Partners to deliver the TB Eradication Strategies across England and Wales respectively. Each regional Delivery Partner maintains its own network of subcontracted veterinary practices who deliver TB skin testing on farms following TB Test allocation by APHA. Contract costs between APHA and its Delivery Partners include TB test delivery on farm, quality assurance, administration, travel, and a contribution to overhead costs of both the Delivery Partner organisations and their subcontractors.

For England:

• The average cost per TB skin test event* in the 2023/24 financial year was circa £715 (based on an average test calculation).

• The average cost per Head of Cattle in the 2023/24 financial year was circa £5.40.

• The average cost per TB skin test event in the 2024/25 financial year (to date) is circa £760 (based on an average test calculation and based upon data from April to December 2024 inclusive).

• The average cost per Head of Cattle in the 2024/25 financial year (to date) is circa £5.70

This information does not include costs of Gamma Interferon testing.

* A TB test event may include the whole herd (usually all the animals of at least 42 days of age), a proportion of a herd, or a few individual animals in a herd.