NFU Cymru: Record numbers of cattle culled paints sobering TB picture for Welsh farmers
‘Sobering’ new figures showing a record number of cattle culled in Wales last year because of bovine TB further underlines the need for change in strategy, says NFU Cymru
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) latest quarterly statistics show that over 13,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2024 due to bovine TB – a 27% increase compared to 2023. The 2024 figures represent the largest ever number of cattle culled because of bovine TB over a 12-month period.
The wider disease picture for last year shows that overall herd incidence, which measures the rate at which new bTB incidents are being detected in an area, remained the same. Herd prevalence, defined as the percentage of all registered herds which were not Officially TB-Free (OTF) during the time, rose by 0.1%.
