Wales
Wales currently has the highest rate of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) infection in the UK. In January 2008, the Welsh Assembly's Rural Development Sub-Committee published its report on bTB. This report was based largely on the findings of the Independent Scientific Group (ISG's) own report at the end of the 10 year RBCT carried out in England. The ISG concluded that badger culling would not meaningfully contribute to the control of bTB in the UK. Instead, it outlined a number of cattle-based control methods.
Despite these findings, from one of the largest field experiments ever carried out, the Sub-Committee recommended a badger culling trial in Wales to produce further evidence on the effects of wildlife culling on TB within an area enclosed by hard boundaries, such as motorways and rivers. In February 2008, this proposal was accepted by the Welsh Assembly.
Elin Jones AM, the Welsh Assembly's Minister for Rural Affairs is currently faced with the decision of how best to tackle the bTB situation in Wales. In April 2008 she announced plans which included a one-off test of all Welsh cattle and a limited badger cull, the details of which have yet to be decided. In response to this, the Badger Trust launched a Judicial Review proceeding against the Welsh Assembly and Elin Jones for that decision to be quashed. But since the Welsh Assembly are keeping their plans under wraps this has made it impossible for the Badger Trust to proceed with the judicial review at present - though quite detailed legal correspondence has been exchanged between BT lawyers and WAG.
Preparations and planning for a cull are now well underway.The chief vet (Christianne Glossop) has said recently that they expect to carry on culling until well into the 2030s. If the 'pilot' cull is 'effective' (but they will have no scientific control areas so it will be impossible to validate scientifically) they will extend it to all TB hotspots in Wales (which will probably soon be most of Wales). They are likely to announce timing/location of cull in the autumn with a view to starting next year.
Yet again, despite the primary focus on badgers, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the situation in Wales can be traced to cattle movement, yet this fact is largely ignored. The main upsurge in TB infection was after the latest Foot and Mouth outbreak when a huge amount of restocking of Welsh herds took place from TB hotspots in England - and the NFU refused to do any pre movement testing. The TB rate shot up 177% in Welsh herds over 2 years alone!
Since then, many areas/herds in Wales have only been tested every 4 years (and pre movement testing was only introduced in 2006) so there is a huge hidden reservoir of infection in Welsh herds which will now start to show up in a big way with increased/more frequent as well as one-off testing of all cattle.
The average size of Welsh dairy herds has been increasing faster than in England and Ireland, and this rapid growth can only have been sustained by buying in stock from other areas of the UK. The results of recent bTB testing would appear to support this as they show that a large proportion of the cattle showing positive results in Wales are in the early stages of infection, which would be in keeping with suspected recent imports from infected parts of South West England.
At the moment, CBAG and other badger groups wait to find out more about Elin Jones' plans for the badger cull in Wales, it is still a very real possibility for the badgers of Wales. If plans arise, CBAG and its supporters will be there in the Welsh killing fields to save lives.
---- ooo ---
A lot of badger groups in Wales are carrying out local rallies and events, and handing out postcards to send to Elin Jones - and also urging people to write from England to say they won't visit Wales again if the cull goes ahead. Download a leaflet in either Adobe pdf or MS Publisher format about Dyfi Badger Group and visit their website: www.dyfibadgergroup.org