Far from black and white
BOVINE TB (bTB) ‘should not be a political issue’, the NFU has warned, in response to Labour proposals to ban culling licences from 2024. In a meeting with Defra minister Richard Benyon, the farming union stressed that the Government’s continued bTB eradication strategy should be based on ‘sound scientific evidence’. The NFU has cited the recently published Birch Review, which ‘demonstrated the effectiveness of including badger culling as part of a holistic strategy to help eradicate bTB from England’. According to the review, bTB in herds can be reduced by 56% in areas where there has been four years of culling; the Birch Review follows the independent Godfray Review, which recommended wildlife control ‘as an important part of the current TB eradication strategy,’ the NFU added.
‘The current strategy, which includes wildlife control, is based on scientific research that shows a significant reduction of bTB in cattle,’ says NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw. ‘This is a strategy that is working, which is why we were so concerned to hear reports that Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner says a Labour government will not include culling within its strategy to make England bTB free.’
bTB should not be “a political issue”. The strain caused by the disease is enormous
Mr Bradshaw added that bTB should not be ‘a political issue’, that the disease ‘affects the lives of farming families and their cattle herds on a day-to-day basis’ and that ‘the emotional, mental and financial strain caused
