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Bovine TB challenge continues but change in government brings hope

A run down of the 'story so far' this year on Government policy to deal with bTB - but the Farmers Weekly, again pushes what they say is the "Industry" view of pro-cull.  By "Industry" they mean NFU.

FARMERS WEEKLY (print)
NEWS REVIEW
17 December 2010, page 22.

At the start of the year, the prospects for a tougher political stance against bovine TB in England looked bleak.

Labour was still in power and the then DEFRA minister Hilary Benn emphatically ruled out a cull of wildlife vectors.

Mr Benn was instead pinning his hopes of controlling the disease on a vaccination trail in size hotspot areas of England.

But in the May general election, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition ousted the Labour Party from power.

Within weeks, the coalition government had scaled back vaccination plans from six sites to just two. Hopes were raised that the move signalled a more decisive and robust approach to tackling TB was about to be taken.

While Westminster underwent political upheaval in May, Welsh farmers waited for a pilot badger cull in Pembrokeshire to begin.

But it didn't.

Opposition from local landowners and activists blocked efforts by Welsh Assembly Government officials to survey setts ahead of a cull. Then, two months later in the courts, the assembly government's plans were dealt a hammer blow. A High Court judge found in favour of a legal challenge by the Badger Trust. The challenge, bankrolled by rockstar Brian May, had unearthed a legal snag which meant legislation underpinning the cull would have to be completely redrawn.

As Wales's plans faltered, England's gathered momentum. Ministers in London used the summer recess to lay the foundation for a new, tougher TB control strategy for a new, tougher, strategy for England.

September brought an announcement that the coalition government believed a badger cull could reduce TB infections and would consult the nation on the issue. The Welsh Assembly Government followed suit a week later with its own consultation launch.

The deadlines for both have now passed and the industry is waiting, with a great deal more hope than 12 months ago, to hear whether TB will finally be tackled head on.

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