Dairy Event 2009: Film shows devastating impact of TB

The NFU and Country Channel TV have joined forces to show the devastating impacts of bovine tuberculosis on the farming industry.

Country Channel TV has captured the full story of TB in its film which will air on Sky for the first time on 22 September, an NFU spokesman said.

“Through interviews with a range of industry experts, the film highlights the scandalous waste of a disease which sees healthy cattle being slaughtered under the current testing regime while badgers, proven to be a reservoir of the disease in the wild, are left unchecked,” the spokesman said.

NFU president Peter Kendall was interviewed as part of the film. He said: “Country Channel TV has made a film that clearly demonstrates the very real impact that bovine TB is having on farming families – it is devastating lives.

“We can no longer sit back and let badgers, which have been scientifically proven as a carrier of bovine TB, run riot re-infecting healthy cattle herds with no stops in place.

“This isn’t about wiping out badgers, it is about controlling what some in our film call a cancer in the countryside. While vaccine is one of the tools at hand we, and many other experts, believe it must be used in partnership with removing diseased animals in identified hot spot areas,” said Mr Kendall.

* Country Channel TV will air the film on Sky channel 171. First transmissions are scheduled for Tuesday 22 September from 5.30am, noon and 7pm, repeated at the same times on 24 September.