In August last year, the Chief Veterinary Officer issued a report on the possible reasons for the reduction in the number of new tuberculosis (TB) incidents observed in Great Britain (GB) in the first half of 2006. This report, available on the Defra website, includes an assessment of the performance characteristics of the tuberculins manufactured by ID Lelystad BV in Holland, and by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA), in the context of Britain’s bovine TB testing programme. It concludes that, although the two tuberculins perform slightly differently in the field, and that this could be a small contributory factor to the reduction in the number of new TB incidents, the difference is not significant enough to account for the whole fall.
The performance of the tuberculins manufactured by ID Lelystad and by the VLA has continued to be closely monitored and analysed—our reviews do not call into question the efficacy of either tuberculin supply. Furthermore, all tuberculin used in GB (produced by ID Lelystad or VLA) is produced and assayed to the same standard, as part of European Union licensing procedures.