Another set of shocking statistics only underlines what a devastating impact TB is now having on livestock farming in the South West.
But, with the pilot culling now only weeks away there is one thing that concerns me about the Government's approach: where is the Plan B? Suppose the trials fail to deliver as anticipated. What if the requisite number of badgers isn't killed because of various natural or logistical factors? What then?
Are we just supposed to hang around for another 10 years while science develops an effective cattle vaccine, the EC grants us permission to use it and we immunise the entire national herd?
Because if we are, one thing is very clear – the job won't take very long because at the current rate of attrition there will be very few cattle left to vaccinate. I know we should be grateful that Owen Paterson has determined that something must be done about TB – and done now. Especially after all the years Labour spent finding excuses not to do anything at all, on grounds of no science, the wrong sort of science or sheer fright in case any of their friends in the animal rights movement got upset. The last Labour administration, in fact, was negligent to the point of criminality, which is why the EC has finally lost patience with the UK and ordered it to tackle the problem seriously and urgently – hence the third trial area scheduled for Dorset.
But there is no guaranteeing the success of the culls. And when you suggest to ministers that there might be some merit in running a separate, though parallel, trial where we can use accumulated expertise to identify the likely diseased setts and remove their occupants quickly and painlessly, they simply put their fingers in their ears.
Where is the harm in giving official sanction to trialling a method we know is extremely effective? We know it works. Equally we have no idea whether free shooting works. If the shooting strategy fails at least we should have a fall-back situation, another method to roll out for large-scale trials and which would give farmers currently struggling to stay solvent and sane amidst all the horrific pressures of TB some degree of hope. Sadly ministers – or the civil servants who advise them – are prepared to take a chance on free shooting in the hope that it will work, while totally discounting any other approach. With TB threatening to stigmatise British livestock as effectively as BSE did – and with the constant threat that the EC might decide simply to close down the Westcountry down – we need to employ every weapon at our disposal and rapidly as possible.
There is no longer the time available for the measured approach favoured by Defra. We are no longer talking about a minor problem. We are on the brink of seeing TB explode across the country with unthinkable consequences for the farming industry at a time when its finances are already severely weakened. Such a situation demands action now on all fronts. Derek Mead is an entrepreneur dairy farmer from Weston-super-Mare.
