(The Minister of State
for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food): Today I am
updating the House on the implementation of the Government’s
strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England by 2038.
Bovine TB remains one of the greatest animal health threats to
the UK, causing devastation and distress for hard-working farmers
and rural communities. We are therefore continuing to take strong
action to eradicate the disease.
Professor Sir Charles Godfray’s independent review of the
strategy highlighted a number of potential further actions while
noting the level of challenge associated with eradicating bovine
TB. We continue to consider the review’s advice in detail and
will publish a formal response in due course.
In the meantime, I am today announcing plans to enhance
biosecurity on farms and when trading, introducing earned
recognition into our testing regime and inviting further
applications to our badger vaccination grant scheme. I am also
reporting on the outcome of 2018 badger control operations. All
of the cull areas satisfied the level of badger removal that was
required by their licence conditions.
Our joint industry-government biosecurity progress report has
been published today. As part of our commitment to improving this
important element of our wider TB strategy we will be investing
£25,000 to improve the TB Hub website which is hosted by the
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and which provides
farmers and others with practical biosecurity advice.
Furthermore, early next year we will carry out our first ever TB
farm practices survey which will help us to get a better
understanding of the extent to which biosecurity and other
farming practices currently contribute to our efforts to control
bovine TB.
Since January 2018 many herds in the Edge Area of England have
been subject to six-monthly surveillance testing. From May 2019
we will give recognition to herds that have managed to stay clear
of bovine TB restrictions in the last six years and herds that
have achieved accreditation based on standards laid down by the
Cattle Health Certification Standards body. We hope allowing
these lower risk herds to revert to annual testing will
incentivise others to take steps to reduce their TB risks.
There is broad scientific consensus that badgers are implicated
in the spread of TB to cattle. This year, effective, licensed
badger removal operations were completed by local farmers and
landowners in 11 new areas and 19 existing areas. Alongside our
robust cattle movement and testing regime, this will allow us to
achieve and maintain long term reductions in the level of TB in
cattle across the South West and Midlands, where the disease is
widespread. The pace at which farmers and landowners came
together to deliver an effective badger removal operation in
Cumbria, part of the TB Low Risk Area, alongside enhanced cattle
measures, has given us the best opportunity to stamp out the
disease in this hotspot.
Badger BCG vaccination can provide a level of protection against
disease and has a role to play in limiting TB spread to healthy
badger populations. Therefore, a second round of applications for
the ‘Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme’ is now open, with grant
funding available to private groups wishing to carry out badger
vaccination in the Edge Area of England. Groups will receive at
least 50% funding towards their eligible costs. This builds on
the three initial four-year projects we have funded, which
successfully carried out badger vaccination in 2018.
We remain determined to implement all available measures
necessary to eradicate this devastating disease as quickly as
possible.
