Jeremy Clarkson admits he is on 'very steep learning curve' after TB outbreak
The Top Gear and Grand Tour star originally purchased the Chadlington-based farm back in 2008.
It has since been the focus of four series of the Prime Video hit show Clarkson's Farm, but the 65-year-old had bad news to share with his fans on Thursday afternoon (July 31).
READ MORE: Traffic chaos near wildlife park and Clarkson's pub as motorists urged to plan ahead
On Thursday, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that a pregnant cow had contracted the disease on his farm near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Mr Clarkson later said in an interview with Times Radio that Diddly Squat Farm "will be closed for two months" as a result of the outbreak. The shop remains open.
The TV star has faced a tough week, because not only is he also dealing with 'a very sickly calf', but he also discovered that one of his puppies had died on Friday morning.
Mr Clarkson told The Times that the unexpected TB diagnosis, the first for him, had thrown operations at Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire into disarray and admitted that he was on a 'very steep learning curve'.
'The disruption's enormous, because you aren't allowed to operate as a business,' Mr Clarkson told The Times, describing the experience as 'bloody awful'.
'You have to isolate them for two months.
"So all the barns we needed to store the grain in, we now have to convert into a cow hospital. We've got another calf with pneumonia, so that needs to be housed. And we can't buy or sell a cow now because the farm officially, you know, has TB.'
Mr Clarkson also said that he did not know how the disease had reached the farm.
Bovine TB is usually spread is by cattle with unidentified infections being moved around the country.
However, it can also be spread to cattle from badgers, which harbour the bacterium that causes it.
READ MORE: Diddly Squat Farm beekeeper given top praise by Jeremy Clarkson
That route of transmission is why licensed culling of badgers has taken place since 2011.
The Government said in June it will not be extending the badger cull and retains its commitment to end the practice before the next election.
Oxfordshire is an 'edge area' for bovine 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.
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