Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

(asked on 1st May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has for a strategy to manage bovine TB in the countryside without using badger culling; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 9th May 2019

A successful strategy for eradicating bovine TB involves addressing all routes of spread of infection, including cattle-to-cattle, cattle-to-badger, badger-to-badger and badger-to-cattle.

As part of the Government’s 25 year bovine TB eradication strategy, we are taking strong action to eradicate the disease and protect the future of our dairy and beef industries, with emphasis on detecting infection early in cattle herds, containing and removing it as quickly as possible, and tighter biosecurity. We also enable farmers and landowners to carry out badger culling and/or badger vaccination, subject to strict licensing criteria by Natural England.

Sir Charles Godfray’s review of the strategy is an important contribution that will inform future approaches around our goal of eradicating the disease in England by 2038.

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