Bovine Tuberculosis

Thursday 4th July 2013 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr Owen Paterson)]

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is the most pressing animal health problem in the United Kingdom. The crisis facing our cattle farmers, their families and their communities cannot be overstated. Bovine tuberculosis is a devastating disease which threatens our cattle industry and presents a risk to other livestock, wildlife species such as badgers, domestic pets and humans.

This was once a disease isolated to small pockets of the country. It has now spread extensively through the west of England and Wales. The number of new herd breakdowns has doubled every nine years and in the last decade we have slaughtered 305,000 cattle across Great Britain. In 2012 in England alone, over 5.5 million bTB tests were performed leading to the slaughter of 28,000 cattle with the disease costing the taxpayer nearly £100 million. In the last 10 years bTB has cost the taxpayer £500 million. It is estimated that this will rise to £1 billion over the next decade if the disease is left unchecked.

The Government are today publishing a consultation on a draft strategy for achieving official freedom from bTB in England. The strategy, which has been developed by the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England and the Bovine TB Eradication Advisory Group for England, draws upon successful approaches to eradicate bTB around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Michigan in the Unites States of America and the Republic of Ireland. These demonstrate the importance of applying stringent cattle control measures in combination with tackling any significant reservoir of infection in wildlife, whether it is water buffalo, brush-tailed possums, white-tailed deer, or badgers. An additional factor which has contributed to their success is the fact that their programmes are either led by industry or delivered by Government and industry, with both parties contributing to the cost.

The strategy builds upon the measures applied currently including testing of cattle and other animals, additional controls in affected herds, and controls to address the reservoir of infection in badgers. The Government are proposing to work in partnership with the industry to develop risk-based packages using all available tools to protect low-risk areas of England, stop the geographical spread of bTB and bear down on the disease in endemic areas.

As well as using available tools the Government will continue to develop new ones. I have already achieved a major success in securing a concrete road map from the European Commission on the deployment of cattle vaccination. I am committed to meeting the minimum time scale but that is at least 10 years away. The Government will also continue to invest in the development of an oral badger vaccine and in new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis in cattle and badgers, which could pave the way for alternative approaches.

The final element is a consideration of options for governance, delivery and funding of the strategy. The New Zealand approach in particular, demonstrates the success of industry-led eradication strategies co-financed by industry and Government.

Tackling bTB will require long-term solutions and considerable national resolve. The strategy will deliver my ambition to reverse the rising trend in the worst affected areas of the country well before the end of this decade, achieve official freedom from bTB for parts of England on the same time scale and thereafter progressively rid the whole of England of bTB over 25 years. Our cattle industry and countryside deserve no less.