Welsh farming union NFU Cymru has given evidence to the National Assembly for Wales’ Environment and Rural Affairs Committee to emphasise the 'devastating impact' that bovine TB is having on farms across Wales.
NFU Cymru President Stephen James and County Adviser Peter Howells visited the Senedd on Thursday 8th December to highlight to politicians that the disease continues to cause 'untold heartache and stress' to cattle farmers across Wales, while also placing enormous emotional and financial strain on farming families.
NFU Cymru has explained the union has been 'clear and consistent' in calling on the Welsh Government to put in place a TB eradication strategy in Wales that removes disease from cattle and wildlife sources.
Speaking after giving evidence at the meeting, NFU Cymru President Stephen James, said: “Farmers are playing their part in tackling bovine TB through cattle-based measures, but there remains a lot of frustration in the industry that the reservoir of infection that exists in wildlife has not been confronted. The disease must be actively removed from the badger population in areas where TB is endemic.
“Today we made it clear that future TB eradication measures implemented by the Welsh Government should be based on sound evidence and science-based policy decision making and that all sources of the disease must be tackled effectively if we’re ever to have any chance of eradicating bovine TB in Wales.”
Welsh Government’s ‘A refreshed TB Eradication Programme’ consultation closes on Tuesday 10th January 2017.
'New regionalised approach'
In October, the Welsh government has announced a new 'regionalised approach' to tackle the cattle disease bovine TB.
As part of the Welsh government’s refreshed bovine TB Eradication Programme, 'Low, Intermediate and High TB Areas' will be established across Wales based on bovine TB incidence levels. The government is consulting on the measures to be applied to protect the Low TB Area and to reduce disease in the Intermediate and High TB Areas.
Bovine TB is the biggest threat to beef and dairy farmers across large parts of Wales. Over the past 12 months nearly 9,500 cattle have been slaughtered as a result of this disease, a 38% increase from last year.
The situation is worse in endemic areas of the country with Pembrokeshire suffering a 40% increase in slaughtered cattle, Carmarthenshire 78% and Clwyd an increase of 137% in the 12 months to July 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year.
Since January 1996 the number of animals slaughtered in Wales as a result of bovine TB has reached a staggering figure of 118,488 animals - that is equivalent to 23% of the total number of adult cattle on farms across Wales today.
