Suffolk farmer admits risking spread of bovine TB

Parker failed to dispose of animals properly

A farmer has admitted risking the spread of bovine tuberculosis by failing to dispose of dead animals properly.

Wayne Parker, 32, of Wayne Parker Farming in Mildenhall, Suffolk, admitted eight counts of animal health offences at Ipswich Magistrates' Court.

Parker had failed to register hundreds of animals, test cattle for TB and dispose of dead animals properly.

He was given a 12-week sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Bovine tuberculosis is contagious to other cattle, animals and humans.

In one instance Parker moved 843 cattle to his Suffolk farm without registering them, the court heard. There were also 600 to 800 sheep which had not been registered in his records.

Parker failed to dispose of animals properly

His failure to keep accurate cattle records had a knock-on effect on 18 businesses which had their own cattle passports - a form identifying their movements - withdrawn due to a lack of traceability.

Suffolk Trading Standards said these businesses faced a potentially "significant financial loss".

Magistrates said the offences, which date between June 2018 and January 2019, posed a "high risk".

Trading standards, who prosecuted Parker, said his actions had "many potential dangerous consequences", adding bovine tuberculosis was "a disease which is taken very seriously by us".

Parker was ordered to pay £122 victim surcharge and more than £12,000 costs to Suffolk Council Trading Standards.