Industry slams latest DEFRA plans to stop disease spread
By Andrew Watts
DEFRA”S LATEST measures aimed at halting the spread of bovine tuberculosis have drawn heavy criticism from the farm industry.
The latest framework of measures will form the basis for policy over the next 10 years, but it omits to include ways in which DEFRA will tackle the growing problem of TB in wild animals.
Mark Hudson, president of the Country Land and Business Association, urged the government to accept the findings of the “Four Areas” trial in the Republic of Ireland and act to reduce the spread of the disease in certain wildlife species.
“If we are ever to control TB in this country, then we have to control it in wildlife, too,” said Mr Hudson.
“There is no escaping this, and when the minister cites social acceptability” as a reason for avoiding the most effective method of control, it does nothing to engender our confidence that DEFRA will take necessary but unpopular decisions.”
Announced on Tuesday (Mar 1) by junior DEFRA minister Ben Bradshaw and chief veterinary officer Debbie Reynolds, the strategy will focus on tighter cattle controls. The strategy”s aim is to stop the disease spreading further into uninfected areas while bringing the spread of the disease in infected areas under control. DEFRA also intends to devolve responsibility for delivering these policies to the regions (Scotland and Wales), where they will be able to tailor delivery to the specifics of the region.
But culling badgers was ruled out, at least until the Randomised Badger Culling Trials are concluded and their findings presented to ministers – expected to be early 2007.
But Mr Bradshaw dismissed any notion that he was avoiding having to make a decision on culling badgers on the grounds of public acceptability. “I would not be prepared to hide behind public opinion just to avoid making a decision that we thought was unpopular, and I have no interest in doing that,” he said.
“I don”t feel there is enough evidence now for us to say that a policy on badger culling would be effective, cost-effective, sustainable, let lone publicly acceptable,” added the minister.
Further criticism of the measures came from Meurig Raymond, vice-president of the NFU, who described the strategy as not being sufficiently ambitious in its time frame and called for action to tackle the disease in wildlife.
“The NFU believes DEFRA must adopt a synchronised approach to eradicating this disease from both domestic and wild animal populations,” said Mr Raymond.
“To ask farmers to implement more stringent controls ahead of any future possible announcement on measures to control TB in wild animals fails adequately to address the issue,” he added.
Robert Forster, chief executive of the National Beef Association, also voiced his disappointment with the government, saying that DEFRA still had to demonstrate it was serious about reducing the contribution of badgers.
Mr Forster warned the government that farmers would not be prepared to endorse plans to see farmers jointly fund the cost of introducing pre-movement testing. DEFRA intends to share the cost of pre- and post-movement testing with the industry and has established a stakeholder group to consider the best method in which to do this.
“We are not ready to endorse government plans for farmers to bear a greater share of control costs, which last year topped 92m, are expected to hit 110m by the end of this year, and could increase in further 20% annual jumps thereafter,” he said
“The key to securing their physical and financial support is a balanced eradication programme that effectively tackles the badger-to-cattle and cattle-to-badger cycle in hot spot areas and reduces the less widespread cattle-to-cattle contribution, too,” Mr Forster added.
However, DEFRA does recognise the results from by the “Four Areas” trial in Ireland, but reserves judgement over certain aspects of them.
“The [Irish] TB study is the best evidence yet of the fact of badgers contributing to bovine TB in cattle. However, the nature of the link is still unclear,” said Howard Dalton chief scientific adviser to DEFRA in his report on the Irish trials.