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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to roll out the use of the actiphage test for bovine TB in cattle.

The tuberculin skin test continues to be the foundation of our bovine TB eradication programme, supplemented by the interferon-gamma blood test to remove residual infection in affected herds.

Actiphage is a non-validated test. Defra allows the use of non-validated tests in chronic and persistent TB breakdown herds in England under certain conditions. Private veterinarians are able to apply to APHA for permission to use these tests, provided they comply with the protocol published on the APHA Vet Gateway - http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/non-valid-tb-testing/index.htm.

There is currently insufficient information on the diagnostic performance of the Actiphage test. In order for it to be validated, further studies with larger sample sizes taken from a range of cattle herds of different TB status would be required to assess its diagnostic accuracy.

Validation of a new test to international (World Animal Health Organisation - OIE) standards would enable consideration to be given to its statutory use as part of the Government’s bTB testing programme.

A factsheet on the Actiphage test is available on the TB hub website:

https://tbhub.co.uk/resources/downloads/