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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to adopt the gamma interferon test as the primary standardised test to detect TB in cattle.

The tuberculin skin test is the internationally accepted standard for detection of infection with M. bovis for the purposes of trade. The tuberculin skin test is more specific than the interferon gamma test but less sensitive (see PQ 41639). Thus the interferon gamma test is only used in specific circumstances in TB-affected herds in combination with the skin test to help with early identification and removal of TB infected animals and reduce the risk of spread of disease.