"MPs blame bad farmers, not badgers for spreading cattle disease
Unhygienic farms and movement of cattle around the country spreads bovine tuberculosis - not badgers, according to MPs.
For all the cost of the proposed cull, it is dwarfed by the millions of pounds of damage that TB-infected badgers do when they transfer the disease to cattle
A badger cull was expected to go ahead this summer
She said the intensification of farming means there are much bigger herds and the disease spreads faster.
She also suggested bad animal husbandry can cause spread of the disease, such as failing to regularly clean out water troughs and putting animals out to pasture just after spreading slurry.
Ms Lucas said killing badgers will have little effect on reducing bovine TB and could even spread the disease because infected badgers move into new areas.
She said the best way to stop the spread of the disease is to lobby the EU to speed up a vaccination for cattle and to restrict the movement of herds.
“The frustration is that we've had years and years of inaction. The idea that suddenly pulling a badger cull down from the shelf is going to actually be the solution is the wrong way to respond to that frustration,” she said. "What we should have been doing is having Government going to the EU and making the case for vaccination, which all of the evidence suggests that if you combine with biosecurity, better hygiene, better husbandry, it's a much better way of eradicating this horrible disease.”
Testing for bovine TB was put on hold during the foot and mouth crisis. Then, after the outbreak in the early 2000s, cattle were moved around the country as farmers restocked.
It was also claimed that farmers switch ear tags from TB positive cattle to less productive animals so that they do not lose the best cows in the herd. This means the disease is allowed to continue to infect other cattle.
Labour's Kerry McCarthy agreed there was a "degree of complacency" in Defra about cattle-to-cattle transmissions which needed to be addressed.
But Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, insisted the cull will stop the spread of disease.
"The science is clear after nine years, there was a 28% reduction in the culled area,” he said.
He pointed out that cattle movement restrictions and improved testing will be introduced in the New Year and the cull was needed to tackle the 'resevoir of disease' in wildlife, just as other Governments have abroad.
He cited Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland, adding: "There is not a single country with a cattle industry which struggles with TB where you don't bear down on wildlife and bear down on cattle, we are going to do that."
He said 26,000 cattle were lost last year, adding: "It is completely essential that we go ahead with these culls next summer and prove that they will work so that we bear down on disease in wildlife and we bear down on disease in cattle."
Tory Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon, said there was a risk that if the badger culls were not pursued next year the "impact on farmers' livelihoods" would continue and also the impact on their mental health", adding it was a "dreadful disease and it's extremely distressing for farmers to have to cope with it".
Phil Latham, an “angry dairy farmer” on wrote on Twitter: “There's something damned annoying about hearing people playing politics with your livelihood when you've just shot another 6 cows.”"
taken from:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9633491/MPs-blame-bad-farmers-not-badgers-for-spreading-cattle-disease.html
