APPENDIX 31
Memorandum submitted by Lord Moran (P33)
I am very glad to see that the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs Committee in the House of Commons is proposing
to hold an Inquiry into the Government's approach to badgers and
the incidence of bovine tuberculosis, and that Mr Drew is to chair
the Sub-committee undertaking this enquiry.
I have an interest, as my wife and I have a
small herd of pedigree Welsh Black cattle at our home in Radnorshire.
We were struck by bovine TB in July last year. Six of our cows
and two heifers were tested positive and slaughtered. We had had
the herd for 37 years and it was a great blow to lose so many
of our best animals. Though we were compensated, very fairly,
this was no real solace. Some of our friends and neighbours have
however been hard hit financially as they have been unable to
move stock so as to get them to sales.
Our herd is isolated on a small hill farm and
our cattle have no contact with any other cattle, apart from a
bull bought in which was tested clear. We, and the Government
vets, were in no doubt that the infection which struck us (and
a Good many other farms in our area) came from badgers. I recalled
what Sir John Krebs wrote in his report on behalf of the Independent
Scientific Review Group, namely: "The sum of evidence strongly
supports the view that, in Britain, badgers are a significant
source of infection in cattle. Most of this evidence is indirect
. . . but in total the available evidence, including the effects
of completely removing badgers from certain areas, is compelling."
This, from a leading authority, is clearly right,
and it is sad that such a long time—several years—is
being taken to prove a case which we all know is self-evident.
Badgers, as you will know, have enormously increased in numbers—in
our part of the world they have even taken to digging up graveyards—and
it is clearly essential that they should be culled in areas where
they are spreading TB to so many farms, and may well reinfect
herds that are now clear. I hope your Committee will be able to
persuade the Government to take firm action on this quickly and
so bring this damaging disease under control.
29 January 2003
|
