Herd status classifications

C — Clear

A herd will be classified as ‘clear’ if there is no evidence of TB from on-farm TB tests or any other diagnostics. For each year a herd remains free of TB, a number is added to the ‘clear’ classification until the herd reaches C10 status. Herds that have never had TB detected begin at C2 and go on until C10.

Herds that have had TB infection, will become C1 once the infection is cleared. They will remain C1 for 1-3 years before becoming C2. The clear status is capped at 10 years as that reflects the realistic lifespan of animals within a breeding herd.

Classification status for dry stock

All dry stock herds — where there are no breeding animals over 2 years of age — get a ‘Clear Monitored’ (CM) status. Rather than coming to your farm to complete TB testing, we'll ring you to complete an 'eligible animal questionnaire' over the phone instead. This will let us know if you have any animals that need to be tested for TB.

If your animals do need to be tested, and the TB test is clear, the herd’s CM status won't change. All animals going to slaughter will continue to be monitored by meat inspectors at processing plants.

Classification status for breeding herds

• When a newly created herd tests clear, we give it: a C2 status, or
• if the herd's Person in Charge of Animals (PICA) can provide the Animal Status Declarations (ASDs) for all founding stock to us, the herd's TB status will be the lowest recorded on these.

If the herd stays clear, we’ll increase the number on the classification — for example, C3 then C4, then C5 — every year as we do more testing.

Herd status classifications for deer

Because the TBfree program is at an advanced stage, we're now able to adjust our TB testing process to account for the fact that deer are moved between farms much less often. For deer herds in surveillance areas, checking for TB at the time of slaughter (through inspection at a registered meat processing facility) is an adequate approach, unless there is a specific reason to do further testing.

As a result, all deer herds in low-risk areas —whether they are for breeding or dry stock—have a status of "clear monitored" (CM) unless they are infected or under investigation.

Deer herds located in other Disease Control Areas such as MCA, annual or biennial testing areas are still required to undergo on-farm testing and the herd status classification is set as for cattle.

S — Suspended

A herd with a clear status will be changed to suspended for a variety of reasons. A herd’s TB status can change to suspended if:

• stock joins the herd from a newly identified infected herd
• it has been established from sources with an unknown TB status, or
• the testing obligations for the herd have not been met.

If TB is suspected, we’ll need to do more testing, such as blood tests and post-mortems, before we can determine whether the herd is infected or not.

Classification status for newly registered herds

All newly registered herds, both dry and breeding, will get a Suspended (S) status until:

• they have completed a whole herd TB test, or
• ASDs are supplied for all purchased animals showing their status and details of their last TB test.

The herd must be tested within 12 months of registration. After that, they’ll get a herd status based on the herd type.

I - Infected

A herd will be classified as ‘infected’ if TB infection is confirmed through:

• testing
• meat inspection at slaughter, or
• any other approved diagnostics.

For each year the herd is infected, a number is added to the classification. The number shows how many years the herd has been infected — so I2 if the herd is into its second year of infection, I4 if it's into the fourth year of infection and so on.

A herd stays classified as 'infected' until it has had 2 clear whole-herd tests, at least 6 months apart.

Once testing is complete and no further TB is found in this period, the herds classification will become C1.