Farmer grills Defra boss on bovine TB

THE country's top civil servant responsible for the Government's handling of bovine TB policy was confronted by an angry Westcountry beef farmer as she toured this year's Royal Show at Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire, yesterday.

Katrina Williams, director of animal diseases at the Department for Environment, Food and Royal Affairs (Defra) was told by well-known producer Gordon Tully: "I'm flabbergasted that your Government is putting its head in the sand over this.

"What you are doing is having no positive effect on stopping bovine TB at all. You just have to bite the bullet on the issue of sick badgers."

Mr Tully, who farms near Paignton, was showing South Devon Cattle from his celebrated Waddeton Herd when he met Mrs Williams on her tour of the cattle lines at the Royal Show.

He stressed: "You've killed a third of my herd unnecessarily.

"There are three issues involved – cattle to cattle infection, TB in wildlife, and dodgy testing – and you've only tackled the first. You just have to look at the figures."

Mr Tully went on to relate the saga of how his business had been devastated by TB, which had struck after 63 years of having a "clean" herd.

A breeder of Royal Show and Smithfield champions over many years, he continued by questioning the value of the two bovine TB testing techniques, and he criticised the lack of response to requests for a license to cull diseased badgers.

James Eustace, a Cornish farmer and chairman of the South Devon herd book society, told Mrs Williams the Government's programme for vaccinating wild badgers against bovine TB was full of pitfalls.

He said: "You will only catch 70 per cent of sick badgers, and those infected will go on spreading TB. This scheme is a total waste of time."

Mrs Williams, who heads the Government's Bovine TB Eradication Group, told Mr Tully: "Don't think I am not sympathetic. I well know the situation from my visits to the South West.

"But there is not one single magic solution. We had to get it right and not make it worse by dispersing sick badgers."

On the thorny question of TB testing, she explained Defra was examining the possibility of some sort of combination of the blood and skin tests.

"But fighting this disease is long-term," she stressed, refusing to comment on her possible position if a Conservative government were elected.

Bill Harper, a well-known beef farmer and animal-feed manufacturer, and a National Beef Association member of the TB Eradication Group, told her there should be new legislation to prevent TB infected alpacas and goats from being moved around the country for shows or mating, and she promised to take up the issue.

After the meeting Mr Harper said every opportunity should be taken by farmers to tell civil servants and politicians about bovine TB and the devastation it can cause.

He said: "I think there is a definite change of attitude at Defra and I forecast that the Eradication Group – for civil servants, for farmers and two independent vets – will prove highly effective."

The group is meeting farms minister Jim Fitzpatrick next week.