Badger cull plan to fight TB
14 July 2004 - BBC News
Badger
culling could be a step closer in Wales following an inquiry into TB
in cattle.
Conservation groups are likely to be outraged by a suggestion by
Welsh assembly members to kill large numbers of badgers to halt the
spread of the disease.
Bovine tuberculosis is a serious problem in some parts of Wales,
particularly in the south west.
So far, there is no scientific evidence that badgers are to blame
for the spread anywhere in the UK.
But concerns among livestock-keepers are so great that the
assembly's countryside committee has been studying ways of
controlling the disease - including culling wildlife.
The committee's report, which will be discussed on Wednesday,
suggests testing all cattle for TB before they are moved.
It also recommends establishing research facilities in Wales.
But it also moots the idea of culling certain species - including
badgers, deer and other mammals in "hotspot" areas - but only if
there is clear evidence they could be the source of the disease.
If the policy is successful, it could be applied across Wales.
The suggestions could anger wildlife-lovers and those scientists
who have stressed that no direct link between badgers and bovine TB
has been proven.
Only last week, an all-party committee of MPs said a UK decision
on culling badgers in the battle against bovine TB must await the
outcome of further trials.
The Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee said
that if culling badgers was the government's "plan A", then its
inquiry looked at measures which might make up a "plan B" response
to the problem.
"The political reality is that culling badgers could only ever be
a limited part of a policy to deal with the problem of bovine TB,"
the committee's report said.
Michael Jack who chairs the Commons committee, told BBC Radio 4's
Farming Today that its members had called on the government to move
more quickly and put greater effort and resources into research into
cattle vaccines.
Meanwhile, badger groups have accused the government of burying a
report which was published on the website of the rural affairs
department, Defra, website last Friday, which they say shows that
deer could pose a significant risk of spreading bovine TB.
The report by the Central Science Laboratory was the culmination
of a four-year study into the role that other mammals apart from
badgers might play in the bovine TB story.
There are more than 1.5m deer in Britain, compared with 300,000
badgers.
Deer can carry bovine TB, and they are known to go on to farms
and share cattle troughs.
Bovine TB is endemic in four deer herds in the south and
north-west of England. For more information, please click the following link:
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