Vets seek TB cull (From Stroud News and Journal)

Vets seek TB cull

A CALL by more than 300 vets for a badger cull to control the spread of cattle TB has been dismissed by county conservationists.

In an open letter to environment secretary Margaret Beckett last week the vets called for a strategic cull arguing badgers are mainly responsible for spreading bovine tuberculosis to cattle.

But Tony Dean, Gloucestershire Badger Group chairman, said: "Farmers keep on about culling badgers. They've done nothing else over the past few years.

"It has never been the answer. They have been culling badgers since the 1970s, literally in their thousands all across the country, and it has not solved the problem of TB.

"There are infected badgers but not in the percentages that these vets give out." He blames the spread of TB instead on the post foot-and-mouth movement of cattle to replenish national stocks.

And he argues the transport of cattle should be more tightly controlled and a vaccine developed to immunise herds against the disease.

Pointing to findings by the Independent Scientific Group on cattle TB, Mr Dean added:

"Some of their findings obviously show the spread of bovine TB has been caused by the movement of untested, infected cattle."

The RSPCA too has weighed in with its opposition to any cull.

Colin Booty, the society's senior scientific officer, said the disruption to badger social groups caused by culling "might make matters worse". It has urged no widespread culling of badgers until the results of a full scientific review are known.

The government, which was expected to announce its latest plans for dealing with the disease this week, has said a badger cull would only be considered if scientific evidence proved it would work.