The National Farmers Union (NFU) said badger culling had been effective in controlling transmissions, together with other measures such as cattle testing and movement control.<\/p>\n
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said a decision to end wildlife control when effective cattle vaccination and testing were not expected to be available until 2030 left “gaping holes” in TB control policies.<\/p>\n
He said: “There needs to be much greater urgency, attention and investment given to TB eradication. We still believe a comprehensive approach is the best way to eradicate this terrible disease.”<\/p>\n
Defra said the most recent data showed 5% of tested badger carcasses were positive for TB in 2024.<\/p>\n
It said cattle testing and surveillance had always been “the foundation” of its strategy and a new plan to control TB was expected to be announced soon.<\/p>\n
“Bovine TB remains one of the most difficult and persistent animal health challenges, causing devastation for farmers and rural communities,” a Defra spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Cumbria Wildlife Trust said bovine TB took a “horrendous toll emotionally and financially” on farmers and they were “very keen” to see the government develop a vaccine for cattle.<\/p>\n
“We share a lot of sympathy and empathy with the farmers who are affected,” Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s chief executive Steve Trotter said.<\/p>\n
He added wildlife organisations would be open to working with Defra on a scheme to vaccinate badgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Farmers Union (NFU) said badger culling had been effective in controlling transmissions, together with other measures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-597575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}