Bovine TB talk of the ring at Stoneleigh

THE Royal Agricultural Show at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, was, until recent times, viewed as the ultimate showcase for British farming.

Huge deals involving many millions of pounds were sealed: sadly, the show is but a shadow of what it once was with virtually all of the leading machinery manufacturers absent. That has been evident over the past two days; the organisers will not even disclose the attendance figures.

Livestock entries were down by at least 70 per cent, but that was rather a function of the restrictions relating to bluetongue disease than the efforts of the parent society. However, the talk around the livestock rings was of how Defra (department of the environment, food and rural affairs) intends to address the growing threat posed to the cattle industry by bovine tuberculosis.

Last year close on 28,000 cattle in England and Wales were culled following active symptoms of TB and testing on farms. In the first six months of 2008, around 13,000 cattle have been slaughtered with the Treasury having to pick up the bill for compensation, albeit at a declining rate. The expectation is that before the year is out at least 40,000 cattle will have been sent to the knackers.

The general view among farmers in England and Wales is that vector for bovine TB is the much-increased population of badgers and that a cull should be initiated in the hot-spots. However, it is widely anticipated that Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State at Defra, will make an announcement on Monday ruling this measure completely off the agenda.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser to Defra, conceded that badgers were a big problem and that control measures could be justified. However, Lord Krebbs, who has conducted a range of investigations, argued that killing badgers would not alleviate the growing crisis.

Krebbs, while accepting that badgers did spread TB, said that to truly control TB in cattle up to half of the English population would have to be eradicated. That, he said, would be socially and morally unacceptable.

Peter Kendall, president of the NFU of England and Wales, said: "A negative decision on badger culling would condemn not only tens of thousands of cattle to death, but also thousands of badgers in areas currently free from TB."

Kendall further indicated that the NFU and allied organisations were considering taking legal action against Defra. He said: "Important decisions, which affect thousands of farming families, cannot be left to the whim of opinion polls, but need objective thinking based on scientific facts."

Bovine TB still remains a minor problem north of the Border, and a spokesperson for the Scottish Government confirmed that there had been only six incidents since the turn of the year. Most of these relate to cattle "imported" from hotspots in England.

Charles Milne, the head of the state veterinary service in Scotland, has repeatedly advised against bringing cattle from certain areas of England and Wales into Scotland. Any such transactions involve a rigorous pre- and post-movement testing regime along with a statutory period of isolation. Milne's advice is that Scottish farmers should be extremely careful when buying herd replacements.