Badger cull consultation still weeks away says DEFRA

Reports that DEFRA has set a September date for the launch of a consultation on badger culling are premature, a spokesman for the department has said.

The reports appeared in a Sunday newspaper on 5 September and on a number of national news websites.

But a DEFRA spokesman told Farmers Weekly that no date for a consultation had yet been set.

“The government has committed, as part of a package of measures, to develop affordable options for a carefully-managed and science-led policy of badger control in areas with high and persistent levels of bovine TB.

“We are currently developing proposals which we plan to publish for public consultation in the coming weeks.”

The commitment to consult on a package of measures to tackle TB was first made by farm minister Jim Paice at the Game Fair in July.

Mr Paice said that the government would ask for views on an industry-funded badger cull, cattle movement controls and vaccination.

He said he was convinced of the science behind killing badgers but he wanted a public debate around alternative ways of eradicating the disease, as well discussions about how and where a cull could be carried out.

“There are a huge raft of questions, particularly around the legality of a cull, which need to be answered.

Mr Paice said if there was an alternative way of effectively tackling the disease without killing badgers he would attempt it.

“But the reality is there’s not a country in the world that’s got rid of TB without addressing the problem in wildlife,” he said.

“Yes, there’s an oral vaccine on the way but that’s not going to be available until 2015 at the earliest, and that’s even if we get the right to use it. We can’t wait that long.”

Even if the drug was licenced for use in the UK, meat from vaccinated cattle could not be sold outside the UK, he added.

“The evidence points to a cull being part of the solution; we have got to address the problem in the hotspot areas.”