'Complete change' as Welsh Assembly ponders badger cull to combat bTB
19 March 2007 - Farmers Weekly
The Welsh Assembly has taken a major step towards ordering local badger culls to combat
bovinetuberculosis.
According
to one source within the assembly walls, officials and politicians are
talking of a complete change in attitude towards a cull in wildlife.
And the assembly's advisory body, the
BovineTB Action Group, has announced it will visit the Republic of Ireland in April to examine its culling strategy.
The
group will report back in June after the local elections have taken
place in the principality in May and recommend action to the first
minister in the assembly.
The
renewed activity follows the Welsh Found Dead Badger Survey. It found
up to 26% of badgers carried the disease in some counties and that the
strain of TB found, matched the strain prevalent in cattle in the local
area.
Wales' chief vet Christianne Glossop said it could not
be determined whether the disease had originated with the cattle or the
badgers.
But Dr Glossop said diseased badgers were raising as
many as four disease-carrying litters before the dams eventually died
underground.
TB Action Group chair Tamsin Dunwoody, a Labour
deputy minister, said she expected a recommendation to be arrived at
"fairly quickly" in a "very objective and scientific" way to deal with
wildlife.
Asked why the group's change of
attitude, Dr Glossop referred to the findings of the found-dead survey,
a "change in attitude among the representative groups", and a
recognition of the need to deal with TB in wildlife.
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