TB Report doesn’t provide answers – MPs
Responding to the publication of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB’s final report, Cornish MPs today (Monday) said rural communities needed answers and action from Ministers on the way forward.
The report, authored by Professor John Bourne, was based on testing with three different methods in patches of Cornwall, as well as in other parts of the country. The MPs say it did not provide conclusive evidence as to how effective pro-active badger control could be if taken over a wide area like the whole of Devon and Cornwall.
The Chairman’s Overview acknowledges, “proactive badger culling reduced TB incidence in cattle in culled areas” but says this was offset by an increased incidence in surrounding un-culled areas. It goes on to say that culling strategy in the Republic of Ireland had reported greater reductions in cattle TB incidence than were apparent in the British study’s Randomised Badger Culling Trial, which in Cornwall only took on a pro-active cull in Madron and Lanreath.
Professor Bourne further acknowledges that the Independent Scientific Group “was directed by Ministers at the outset that the elimination of badgers from large tracts of the countryside was politically unacceptable”.
Commenting, North Cornwall’s MP and member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, Dan Rogerson said:
“The report clearly acknowledges a link between badgers and TB in cattle.
“Simply to conclude that badger control is not the answer is no answer at all. Are farmers supposed simply to bear the enormous stress that this problem puts on them? Is the Exchequer supposed to swallow the cost of compensation claims ad infinitum as herds go down to this disease?
“It’s clear that the Group was told before it had heard a single minute of evidence, or written a single word that it could not conclude that serious badger control was an option.
“If serious, effective and widespread badger control is not the answer, the Government must tell us what is – and fast.”
Julia Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne added:
“The case against pro-active badger controls over a wide area like Cornwall, rather than in tiny patches, using different methods, has certainly not been disproved. Ministers cannot let a decade of work simply lead to more hand-wringing. Cornish farmers need and deserve better.”
