Jeremy Clarkson confirms Bovine TB found on Diddly Squat Farm leaving team “devastated”

Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed a case of bovine TB has been found at Diddly Squat Farm. The team has been left “devastated” according to the former Top Gear presenter.

Posting to X, formerly Twitter, the 65-year-old said a pregnant cow has contracted the disease on the farm near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. He wrote: “Bad news from Diddly Squat. We’ve gone down with TB. Everyone here is absolutely devastated.”

Asked in the comments about the prize bull called Endgame, which Clarkson bought recently for £5,500 featured in the latest Amazon Prime Video series, he said: “His test was ‘inconclusive’. I couldn’t bear it if we lost him.”

He later wrote: “The offending animal is pregnant with twins.” Clarkson also clarified the disease is Bovine TB, which does not affect people, “just our poor cows”.

Cattle which fail a TB test, or animals that have inconclusive results for two consecutive tests, and are classed as “reactors”, must be isolated before being slaughtered. Bovine TB is recognised as a problem which devastates farm businesses, spreading from badgers to cattle, and from cow to cow.

Badger culling has long been a part of the Government response to the disease, despite criticism from wildlife and animal welfare campaigners. The Government last month said it will not be extending the badger cull and retains its commitment to end the practice before the next election.

Last year, a small-scale badger vaccination trial led by farmers in Cornwall raised hopes it could help tackle the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a study says. The four-year scheme suggests badger vaccination on 12 farms, which was initiated by a farmer who approached the local wildlife trust about badger vaccination as an alternative to culling, shows it can be “practicable, technically effective, and acceptable to farmers”.

Blood testing of badgers – which can spread bTB to cattle – alongside vaccinations showed those testing positive for the disease fell from 16% at the beginning of the scheme to 0% by the end. The team behind the project were able to administer jabs to more badgers per square kilometre than were captured in a nearby cull, with separate counts from camera traps suggesting nearly three quarters (74%) of local badgers received the vaccine.

And the farmers involved reported increased enthusiasm for vaccination as tool for controlling bTB, with interviews as part of the study finding they were keen to continue vaccination beyond the original four years.

However, many farmers remain sceptical about the role of vaccination, with concerns it might not be effective, as it might reach too few badgers at too high a cost. This attitude has “some justification”, the study authors said, as the process has not been subject to the same large-scale evaluation as badger culling.

Oxfordshire is an “edge area” for TB, meaning it is a buffer zone between high risk and low risk areas – so most herds are subject to six monthly TB tests by default. There have been several cases in the area of Oxfordshire near to Diddly Squat Farm in recent weeks, according to ibTB, a mapping platform for the disease in England and Wales.