Badger cull to be extended in areas at high risk of tuberculosis

BADGER CULLING has been given the go-ahead in 10 new areas at high risk of tuberculosis in cattle, the Government has announced.

A green light has also been given to cull badgers in Cumbria to tackle a “pocket of infection” in a region which is otherwise at low risk of the disease, as licences are issued allowing the culling of tens of thousands of animals.

Culling is now taking place in 32 areas across 10 counties – Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Cheshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Staffordshire and Cumbria. It comes as data by the Government shows the rate of TB in cattle has halved in the first two cull areas since the programme began.

In Gloucestershire, the incidence of TB has fallen from 10.4 per cent before culling started to 5.6 per cent in the fourth year of the cull, while in Somerset it has dropped from 24 per cent to 12 per cent, the data shows.

Ministers have also announced they are opening a new round of applications for grants to vaccinate badgers for TB in “edge” zones around the high risk areas.

Farming Minister George Eustice said: “Today’s figures showing reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy for dealing with this slow moving, insidious disease is delivering results.

“Bovine TB remains one of the greatest animal health threats to the UK. There is no single measure that will provide an easy answer which is why we are committed to pursuing a wide range of interventions to protect the future of our dairy and beef industries and eradicate the disease within 20 years. No-one wants to be culling badgers forever so the progress reported today is encouraging.”

National Farmers’ Union vice president Stuart Roberts welcomed the news that data from the original cull areas showed a fall in TB incidence.