Whisper it quietly, Defra: TB cattle slaughter rates down by nearly 10% on 2012
As MPs debated the disastrous Badger Cull Pilots in Westminster yesterday, without the presence of Owen Paterson, DEFRA released its latest statistics on bovine TB in UK cattle herds.
From the start of this year, under pressure from the European Commission, the Government has forced farmers to tighten down on biosecurity controls, cattle movements and TB testing. As a result, we have seen a steady decline in the rates of TB in cattle compared to the same period in 2012.
Comparing the latest DEFRA figures from September 2012 to September 2013, there has been an overall drop of 5.9% in new TB cases and a 9.5% drop in the number of cattle slaughtered for TB.
Commenting on the latest figures, Dominic Dyer, Policy Advisor at Care for the Wild, said:
“This is great news for farmers but there has been complete silence from Owen Paterson and the National Farmers Union on these reductions in TB, as they do no not want to further undermine the justification for this disastrous badger cull.
“Owen Paterson has wasted millions of pounds of tax payers’ money on a badger cull which has failed on scientific and humaneness grounds and could well have increased the risk of TB spread in the cull zones.
“In the meantime, we have seen that by forcing farmers to clamp down on biosecurity and cattle movement controls, and improve the standard of TB testing, we can deliver a significant reduction in TB levels in livestock without the senseless slaughter of badgers.
“It’s time that Owen Paterson came out of hiding and showed the courage to admit the badger cull has been a complete failure.
The game is up. Politicians and the public can now see that the only long term solution to reducing TB in cattle is a combination of tighter biosecurity, cattle movement controls, TB testing and vaccination of both badgers and cattle.”
Care for the Wild is a wildlife charity based in Horsham. For more information, see www.careforthewild.com/badger
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