A HOTSPOT of bovine tuberculosis in Furness is still causing concern after experts have been baffled by a fresh case at a previously unaffected farm.

Routine TB tests among a beef suckler herd near Barrow-in-Furness identified one cow with the disease this week.

Carlisle-based vet John Moffitt, of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the incident was not explained by the arrival of new stock on the farm the most common cause behind the spread of TB.

TB cases in the stretch between Barrow and Greenodd have slumped since last year's peak when 14 farms were infected. All but one of those is now in the clear although that follows a tough period of financially punishing restrictions when animals could not move off the farm except for slaughter.

The latest Barrow case is being treated as an anomaly. Mr Moffitt said: "We have appeared to have cleared the infection in that it doesn't appear to have spread further but the worrying thing now is having a new case for no apparent reason with no obvious source."

In response, Defra is urging farmers to take care buying stock and check for a clean TB history. Movement restrictions will also come into effect on February 17 for herds whose routine TB tests have become overdue.

Crucially, Defra is also continuing with a survey of wildlife killed on the roads to see if animals like badgers and deer could be harbouring and spreading TB. Since the tests began, in January 2004, 24 roadkill badgers have been tested and one deer. All the tests have proved negative but the sample size is not big enough to draw any firm conclusions.

Deer were linked to three TB cases in 2002 on farms near Dalton-in-Furness, where animals from a defunct red deer farm were found to be infected.

Last year the National Federation of Badger Groups suggested wild deer might have picked up TB from them and now be re-infecting Furness cattle. It accused Defra of deliberately ignoring deer and pointing the finger at badgers instead, even though a TB-infected badger had never been found in Cumbria.

Yet Mr Moffit is sceptical of the deer theory.

"The other more central Furness problem is to my mind far enough away geographically from the deer herd not to be directly linked," he said, adding that the focus of the deer population was not in Furness but further north at Grizedale Forest.

However, Mr Moffitt said the NFBG's comments had been "taken on board" and he had reminded deer groups of their legal obligation to notify Defra of any TB-infected animals. He has given talks on spotting the signs of TB to the North West Deer Management Group, Grizedale Forest Rangers and a stalkers' group.

Mr Moffitt is also urging the public to report any dead animals they find in Furness to Defra on 01228-591999 so they can be picked-up and tested for TB.

Asked if Defra needed to instigate trapping to ensure they secured enough animals to reach statistically significant conclusions on TB in wildlife, Mr Moffitt said that required a policy change.

"If TB was identified it would perhaps be more of a basis to go back to the policy makers and scientists to say we know it's here in the wildlife, can't we do more about it'? I would welcome a more proactive approach whatever that was."

Rampside farmer Jim Webster, the Cumbria president of the Country Land and Business Association, supported the continued roadkill survey.

"At the moment, as long as they are not finding TB in wildlife, I would think what they are doing is enough," he said, while laying the blame for TB spread at Defra's door. "This disease has been allowed to spread undetected. Defra didn't test as regularly as they should have done because of cost-cutting. They have made the savings, now they have got the bill."