NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said: “The Government’s 25-year TB eradication strategy aims to wipe out bovine TB while maintaining a viable cattle industry and this has to be a central part of any strategy. Whole herd culling would condemn tens of thousands of extra cattle to needless death, risk the viability of cattle farming in areas of the country that are best suited to it, and would be very expensive in terms of compensation.
“We have always said that cattle vaccination has a role to play in controlling and eradicating the disease but the fact is there is no vaccine currently licensed for use. The BCG vaccine is known to be not very effective in any species and there is no trial evidence on its efficacy, which makes predicting its impact on the disease very difficult. We are keen to see cattle vaccination field trials take place as soon as possible and would welcome any efforts to speed up the process.
“We would like to improve cattle testing and believe the best way to do that would be through research on better diagnostics. There are shortcomings with the current tools but the skin test is an internationally recognised test for TB in cattle.
“In high risk areas badgers are probably the major source of infection; in low risk areas badgers have no role at all because they do not have the disease. On average this might mean badgers play a minor role in disease spread, but that misses the point of why we need to control the reservoir of disease in wildlife in endemic areas to stop reinfection occurring.
“No one has ever said culling badgers alone will eradicate bovine TB but we believe wildlife control in areas where TB is endemic – along with cattle testing, strengthened cattle movement controls, vaccination of both badgers and cattle when available and where appropriate, and improved biosecurity - must be an essential part of any eradication strategy if we are ever going to get rid of this terrible disease.”