DAIRY farmers Barbara and David Sealy are this week breathing a sigh of relief after their herd was given a clean bill of health, bringing to an end a two-and-a-half-year nightmare brought about by bovine TB.

The Sealys are not out of the woods yet. Although their animals will not have to be tested for another six months, the spectre of infection still hangs over them.

It is another cross which West Country dairy farmers have to bear on top of the catastrophic milk prices and the lingering threat of the return of foot and mouth disease.

During the past two years, 100 of the Sealys' cattle have had to be slaughtered because they were infected with TB. Mrs Sealy said: "There were times when we did get very low, but we decided that getting all depressed was no use and we just had to get on with it.

"You can't pack it all in because you can't sell the animals when there is a risk of infection among them. They would have to be culled. Dairy farming has been my husband's life and, at the risk of appearing sentimental, our animals are an extension of our family."

The nightmare began for the Sealys in March 2000 when one of their cows was declared a reactor it produced tuberculin lumps on its hide when injected with a special indicator. Two other animals were inconclusive.

The confirmed animal had to be kept in isolation until the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was able to remove it to an abattoir three weeks later.

The rest of the herd had to be tested every 60 days. This involved injecting all 280 head of cattle with the indicator and then coming back three days later to see if any had produced the telltale lumps.

Mrs Sealy said: "This process upsets the cows dreadfully. They get very nervous. The milk yield goes down and some of the animals contract mastitis."

But finally last week, the Sealys' herd was given the clean bill of health after two consecutive clear tests, and they were able to relax a little. The cost, however, has been heavy.

Mrs Sealy said: "We lost about 100 animals over the two years. The ministry compensates us for the value of the animals but not for the lost production. Also, up until now our herd has been closed. We have never had to buy in new animals from outside before this but we had no alternative. There are risks involved in this, too.

"The ministry vets have been wonderful and have tried to help us a lot. Our only criticism about the ministry is that it has not been as fast as it could moving infected cattle away."

The current problems plaguing the farming industry have not discouraged the Sealys' son, Max, from becoming an agricultural consultant and working on the family farm. They say farming still has its attractions as a way of life.

Although the Sealys are not convinced of a link between badgers and the spread of bovine TB, they note with interest that the two clear tests coincided with their decision to graze their herd away from the area where badgers mostly congregate.

DEFRA is currently attempting to establish whether there is a link between badgers and bovine TB by undertaking a five-year cull of badgers as part of the Krebs trials. Infected areas, of which Wiltshire is one, are divided into areas where either no badgers are culled, where only those on infected farms are culled, and where all badgers are culled.

One of the areas where badgers are to be eradicated includes Devizes and district and DEFRA operatives have been working in the area since the beginning of June.

But Denise Plumber, chairman of Wiltshire National Farmers' Union, is unimpressed by the Krebs trials and says the ministry should concentrate on a more determined effort to discover the cause of the spread of bovine TB.

Mrs Plumber said: "The Krebs trials are just delaying tactics and are seriously flawed. Farmers who do not want to have the badgers on their land culled do not have to co-operate.

"Bovine TB is a nuisance at a time we are all under pressure because of prices. It is an increasing problem and it is crazy the Government is not dealing with it as a whole. A big breakout at a farm is a perfect opportunity to go in and investigate it fully. But DEFRA doesn't have the resources to do it.

"When dead badgers are brought in, either as road casualties or when found dead in the middle of fields, DEFRA will not test them, because of lack of resources. The problem will not be solved until there is a genuine desire from the Government to do so."