Jeremy Clarkson has announced that his Diddly Squat farm has been rocked by a tuberculosis outbreak.
The TV personality shared the “bad news” from the location at the centre of his Prime Video seriesClarkson’s Farm on Thursday (31 July).
“We’ve gone down with TB. Everyone here is absolutely devastated,” he wrote on X/Twitter, adding: “I should clear this up really. It’s Bovine TB that we have. It doesn’t affect people, just our poor cows.”
He revealed that “the offending animal is pregnant with twins” and also said that tests for Endgame, the beloved Aberdeen Angus bull featured in his hit show, were “inconclusive”.
Bovine tuberculosis or TV is an infectious respiratory disease of cattle and can also infect badgers, deer, goats and pigs.
The disease is the biggest challenge facing the farming industry today.
“An increasing number of farm families are facing the emotional and financial hardship of a TB breakdown,” Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon TD said in May 2025, urging for “decisive action”.
There are differing beliefs over how to reduce the spread, with government officials believing badger culling could stop the disease.
However, in 2022, a “landmark” report found that a badger cull did not contribute to a significant fall in levels of tuberculosis in cattle. This led the RSPCA to call for an immediate halt to culling programmes.
Sources recently told The Independent that, last year, 10,769 badgers were killed, bringing the total killed in 12 years to around 240,000
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Despite the government’s scientific chief advising against the action, officials approved a fresh round of badger culling in June 2025 – but it was later scrapped after a review of the policy was pushed through.
Clarkson bought the now-famous, 1,000-acre land in 2008 and, after the villager who ran the farm retired in 2019, he decided to see if he could run it himself – a venture tracked in Clarkson’s Farm.
He previously clashed with Brian May over his views on badger culling; the Queen guitarist has long been a vocal critic of badger culling.
“These are not nice animals,” Clarkson told The Daily Mailin 2023 after struggling with the threat of bovine tuberculosis to his cattle.
“Do not be fooled by Brian May. This is what badgers do. This is how much heartache they’re causing to people who’ve worked for generations to build up a farm that’s been wiped out by badgers.”
Clarkson’s Farm has become one of Prime Video’s most-streamed TV shows and in July 2024, Clarkson extended his business empire by taking over rural country pub The Windmill in Asthall – a “village boozer” on five acres of countryside near Burford.
The purchase of his pub, which is called The Farmer’s Dog, featured in the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm. But Clarkson recently ruled out any similar ventures in the future, telling The Times he is “done with business” as he “doesn’t understand it”.
“I am not motivated by money. I just want a good craic,” he said.
