Royal Welsh Show: Bovine TB threat to EU trade deal, says farm union

Welsh farmers fear they could lose important export trade with Europe if the government doesn’t tackle bovine TB with a badger cull.

According to the president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, bovine TB could be a barrier to Brexit trade negotiations if the Welsh government fails to demonstrate it is doing everything in its power to tackle the disease in cattle and wildlife.

Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show, Glyn Roberts warned Wales’s European competitors, specifically Ireland, could use the failure to introduce a badger cull as a weapon against future exports of Welsh produce into Europe.

See also: Farm support should stay, says Welsh rural secretary

 “Until now we have had the cushion of free trade with the rest of Europe, but we are in a different situation now,” he said.

“Our export trade post-Brexit will be very important. We need to be in a position of strength to negotiate.

“If we can’t show that we are doing everything possible to tackle TB, then this puts us in a weak position.”

Vaccination is a prevention not a cure. Other areas of the world have shown that controlling the disease in wildlife is the way to do it Stephen James, NFU Cymru

In the 12 months up to the end of April 2016, 8,932 cattle were slaughtered in Wales due to TB – a 41% increase on the previous 12 months.

The Labour-led administration in Wales has steadfastly rejected calls from farmers to cull badgers, opting to vaccinate instead.

It has been suggested it can no longer claim to have a vaccination policy because, due to a worldwide shortage of the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine, it has stopped using it.

Wales’s rural affairs minister, Lesley Griffiths, this week offered a glimmer of hope when she confirmed she would make a statement in the autumn on the future direction of the eradication programme.

“I am going to have a look at the scheme over the summer and will make a statement early in the new term,” she said.

She insisted she was committed to a “science-led approach”, but would not be drawn on whether badger culling could form part of that.

NFU Cymru president, Stephen James, is adamant it should. “We will be pushing the Welsh government hard to reduce numbers of badgers in TB endemic areas.

“We don’t have a problem with badgers, only diseased badgers,” he said.

“Vaccination is a prevention not a cure. Other areas of the world have shown that controlling the disease in wildlife is the way to do it.”

Mr James said bovine TB cast a “lengthy shadow” across the beef and dairy sectors, with farming families in a state of despair and struggling under “enormous emotional and financial strain” when farm incomes and cashflow were already under pressure.