Bovine Tuberculosis Control and Badger Culling
Debate between Olivia Blake and Sarah Dyke(1 day, 23 hours ago)
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Sarah Dyke
I absolutely agree: education is critical. It is also critical in allowing research to continue. Of course, that requires funding, but we also need the right capital investment in farms, so that they can carry out the herd management required to stop the transmission of bovine TB.
Olivia Blake
Does the hon. Lady agree that it could seem counterintuitive to the public for new testing to be illegal and to require the Secretary of State’s intervention, and for testing in herds considered not to have TB to therefore not be possible, allowing undetected cows to be left in herds?
Sarah Dyke
If I understand the hon. Lady correctly, she is saying that detection is important at any stage, and I agree with that. It is absolutely ludicrous that we cannot continue to test all animals in a herd.
The Liberal Democrats call on the Government to develop safe, effective, humane and evidence-based ways of controlling TB. We must invest to produce workable vaccines and surveillance measures that minimise harm to badgers and cattle. The previous Farming Minister, the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner), visited Gatcombe farm alongside the current head of the National Farmers Union, and to his credit showed intent on this issue. I urge the Minister to follow in the footsteps of the hon. Member for Cambridge, and also to give an update on whether she will implement the recommendations of the Godfray report.
The UK lags behind other countries in tackling TB, with prevalence still at around 8% of cattle, despite the culling of nearly a quarter of a million badgers since 2013. We must look beyond culling and focus on testing cattle, while investing in further research into badger vaccination. I would also like data sharing to be improved, especially by providing farmers with access to their TB testing data alongside relevant supplementary tests. We must also ensure that governmental agencies such as the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the British Cattle Movement Service actually talk to each other.
British farming is at a crossroads and this Government must stand up and support our farmers. That is why the Liberal Democrats want an extra £1 billion boost to the farming budget, which would help farmers with capital investment to support herd management and biosecurity, and help break the transmission routes of tuberculosis in cattle. But trust is difficult to build, and unfortunately DEFRA is not conveying confidence to the industry. Farmers are still waiting on the next iteration of the SFI, despite promises that it would come by the end of the summer. We cannot continue to kill our way out of the TB crisis. Solutions must be found to keep our beef and dairy herds OTF. To safeguard the long-term future of British farming, industry and Government must work together to ensure that we reach the target of eliminating TB by 2038.