Bovine TB has devastated the dairy industry. The current ‘test and cull’ regime has failed to eradicate the disease and comes at a high price to the taxpayer, herds and badgers.
Jonnie Yewdall, Commercial Director at PBD Biotech and a former dairy farmer, describes: the impact of this disease on farmers and the industry; how a new test called Actiphage – that uses novel phage technology – offers a new approach to identifying carriers of the disease; the validation process and how improved disease management could eradicate not just bovine TB but also the wasting disease Johne’s.
The webinar has been captured in a presentation – “Heartbreak and Hope – the story of a new diagnostic for bovine TB”.
The presentation ‘Heartbreak and Hope’ is narrated by Jonnie Yewdall, Commercial Director at PBD Biotech, who as a former dairy farmer knows first-hand the devastating impact bTB and Johne’s disease can have on farmers. The herd of pedigree Guernsey cattle on his family farm in North Devon, was decimated by these diseases.
Jonnie says: “I don’t want any farmers to go through what we did, which is why I have joined PBD Biotech. With tools like Actiphage the industry has an opportunity to work together to potentially eradicate these very difficult diseases.”
Overview and timecodes
0:18 The heart-break – Jonnie tells the story of West Webbery Farm
2:38 bTB has an emotional cost to the farmer and his team
3:30 The economic cost to the farm was over £300k
5:15 Nationally the cost to the tax payer was £34M in 2018/19
6:13 The official bTB diagnostic measures the immune response
8:03 The Actiphage test identifies the presence of the pathogen
11.41 Actiphage provides hope of eradicating these diseases
14:16 The next step is full validation by OIE for bTB but the test for Johne’s Disease will be available shortly
