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08/04/2008 15:37:27
Strategy set to tackle bovine TB
Wales has a huge problem with tuberculosis (TB) in cattle - of that there can be no doubt.
Last year more than £15m was paid out to farmers in compensation for cattle infected with TB and it is a figure which is rising steadily.
Almost 8,000 cattle in Wales were slaughtered in 2007, because of TB, compared with less than 700 a decade ago.
But what, or who, is to blame? How is the problem tackled? Later on Tuesday the Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, will outline her response.
Speak to most farmers and the answer is unequivocal. The fault lies with badgers, killing them is the only answer.
Yes, badgers may be native to the British countryside and have been around for thousands of years but, say farmers, they infect thousands of cattle with bovine tuberculosis, a potentially fatal respiratory illness which can ultimately be transmitted to humans.
John Owen is a farm manager near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire who happens to have a 'closed' herd - one into which no cattle have been introduced in the last four years and which does not border another livestock farm.
Yet he has just lost 150 dairy cattle to TB and although he will be compensated for the animals' value, he will have to absorb thousands of pounds in lost income himself.
Last year more than £15m was paid out to farmers in compensation for cattle infected with TB and it is a figure which is rising steadily.
Almost 8,000 cattle in Wales were slaughtered in 2007, because of TB, compared with less than 700 a decade ago.
But what, or who, is to blame? How is the problem tackled? Later on Tuesday the Rural Affairs Minister, Elin Jones, will outline her response.
Speak to most farmers and the answer is unequivocal. The fault lies with badgers, killing them is the only answer.
Yes, badgers may be native to the British countryside and have been around for thousands of years but, say farmers, they infect thousands of cattle with bovine tuberculosis, a potentially fatal respiratory illness which can ultimately be transmitted to humans.
John Owen is a farm manager near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire who happens to have a 'closed' herd - one into which no cattle have been introduced in the last four years and which does not border another livestock farm.
Yet he has just lost 150 dairy cattle to TB and although he will be compensated for the animals' value, he will have to absorb thousands of pounds in lost income himself.
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