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'Scientific endorsement at last,' is how NFU Cymru has reacted to news that the Government's Chief Scientist has endorsed the value of a concerted campaign to target Bovine Tuberculosis in badgers and the Union is now calling on the Welsh Assembly Government to take heed when drawing up its policy to eradicate bTB in Wales.

NFU Cymru President, Dai Davies, said the chief scientist's report was timely given that the Assembly's Rural Affairs Sub-Committee is still taking evidence on bTB with a view to making recommendations to the Minister for Rural Affairs, Elin Jones.

Latest figures reveal that up to the end of August this year 1,946 herds in Wales were subject to movement restrictions with 4,670 animals slaughtered as reactors and a further 363 as dangerous contacts.

Mr Davies said the figures provided damning confirmation of the failure of the Welsh Assembly Government's existing strategy for dealing with TB and the vital need for a completely new approach.

"What we are seeing in these figures is the folly of trying to control a disease by dealing with only some of the causes of it. What is the point in putting in place all sorts of costly and disruptive measures to reduce the spread of disease between cattle if you do nothing to prevent it getting into the cattle in the first place?

"We are not in the least bit surprised at the Chief Scientist's conclusions and we strongly endorse his statement that 'strong action needs to be taken now to reverse the upward trend of this important disease'.

"Now that we have further scientific endorsement for the principle of badger culling, there can be no further excuse for the Welsh Assembly Government not to act and this will be our message when we meet the Minister for Rural Affairs tomorrow."

Mr Davies said that, to be effective, a badger cull would have to reduce badger numbers significantly in the worst TB hotspot areas. But he pointed to recently published research commissioned by Defra on 'the ecological consequences of removing badgers from the ecosystem' which found that other species such as hedgehogs and ground-nesting birds benefited from badger removal.

"Removing diseased badgers from the countryside is not just the only course of action now open to the Assembly Government, it is the right course of action as well. It will help reduce the appalling numbers of cattle that are being prematurely slaughtered in Wales because of TB, it will give the farmer victims of this terrible disease some hope for the future, it will reduce the risk of other wildlife becoming infected, it will take some of the pressure off species like hedgehogs and ground-nesting birds, and ultimately, it will be in the best interests of the badger as well."

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