Bovine TB casts long shadow over farming in Wales

Bovine TB continues to cast a long shadow over Wales’ cattle industry, and is one of the main threats to achieving a productive, progressive and profitable Welsh agricultural industry that was the message from Plaid Cymru’s Simon Thomas.

The TB Eradication Programme published today (Tuesday 20 June 2017) includes the following:

•           A Badger Found Dead Survey will continue across Wales.

•           The Welsh Government will continue to assess the most appropriate deployment of the Badger BCG vaccine if and when it becomes available.

•           As part of the ongoing Action Plan process, where the Labour Government views that badgers are contributing to the persistence of disease in chronic herd breakdowns, badgers will be trapped and tested on the breakdown farm and test positive badgers will be humanely killed. Persistent herd breakdowns will be focussed on initially.

Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Climate Change and Rural Affairs Simon Thomas for the Party of Wales said:

“Bovine TB casts a long shadow over the farming industry in Wales. In the last ten years, the Welsh Government has spent almost £150 million on TB compensation alone.

“Plaid Cymru hopes that a preventative approach to bovine TB can, in the long run, bring down the number of bovine TB cases and lead to less being spent on compensation. However, it is important to ensure that farmers are not penalised for investing in genetic stock to improve the productivity of their business.

“It is welcome that the Labour Government is, finally, taking action to tackle this issue. It is disappointing that it allowed a policy vacuum to remain in place from the end of 2015 when the badger vaccination programme was suspended due to a global shortage of the vaccine and the need to prioritise its use for human health.”

Mid and West AM Simon Thomas also highlighted the dangers of Brexit:

“The decision to leave the European Union could make farmers even more vulnerable, both in terms of loss of European funding which accounts for 15% of the Welsh Government’s spending on eradicating bovine TB, and in terms of Wales’ ability to trade with the EU.

“It is established that the disease is passed between wildlife and cattle and controlling the disease within the wildlife population has to go hand in hand with animal testing and movement restrictions.

“It is welcome that the link between the disease in wildlife and in cattle is being recognised and that measures are being taken to address the policy vacuum that has been in place.

“It needs to be ensured that the measures taken are targeted, effective and humane and Plaid Cymru welcomes the ruling out of an England-style cull proposals.”

TB statistics released for Wales on 14th June 2017 and covering the period March 2016 to March 2017 show a reduction in the number of herds not officially TB free from 648 to 598, and a reduction in the number of new incidents from 769 to 694.

Despite this the total number of animals slaughtered increased during this period from 8691 to 9923. 

Mr Thomas added: “There can be no underestimating the economic and emotional cost of this disease.”