Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
Hi Joyce!

AFAIK humans and animals can react to the test for a number of different reasons.

TB can be a killer in humans and therefore is treated very seriously.

If the child reacted – they would have x-rayed at the time to see if there were any lesions, commonly in the lungs. One presumes none were detected and the reaction may have been due to a different cause, even stress! I trust she grew up to be a healthy and happy adult!

As with FMD the importance of local knowledge seems to be ignored rather with regard to TB testing. There is no doubt that the infection has increased in cattle since 2001 and the halting of regular testing at that time.

Therefore the infection had the chance to spread more than we had hoped. Add to that the fact that farmers needing to re-stock following FMD imported animals from previously infected areas without having a TB test first. Others were also imported from farms that had been tested prior to FMD but had subsequently become infected and therefore the disease has spread to uninfected areas.

It is important that when having animals tested local knowledge be taken into account. ie: have any stock been bought in? When were they last tested etc.

If it seems all should be well and yet one has a reactor, we have to ask why did it react? Are there reasons other than a TB infection that could have caused reaction, even stress. ie: Has the cow lost a calf/companion or been unwell for some reason lately? etc.

If the liklihood of infection seems miniml then isolation and monitoring would seem to be preferable to slaughter in the first instance.