There has been a number of announcements from Government regarding Bovine TB over the month:
Bovine TB Strategy Review
A review of the 25 year Bovine TB strategy is take to place. The Strategy was put in place just over four years ago, with the aim of achieving Bovine Tuberculosis Free status in England by 2038. It outlines the interventions to be used to eradicate the disease, including tighter cattle controls, culling of infected cattle, improved diagnostic tests, enhanced biosecurity measures, culling & vaccination of badgers and the development of a cattle vaccine.
The review will look into what the Government should prioritise in the next phase of the Strategy. The first phase has concentrated on cattle movements, culling of infected cattle and the badger cull. Michael Gove and Farming Minister George Eustice, would like to see other ‘tools’ available, such as cattle vaccination or developing gene resistance to keep the Strategy moving to the next stage. Sir Charles Godfray will chair a small working party. The review is due to end in September 2018. It expected that 5 yearly reviews will take place going forward.
Consultations
Two consultations have been launched. Firstly, DEFRA is consulting on lifting the ‘ten year limit’. This currently only allows 10 new areas to be licensed to cull badgers each year.
The second consultation is on the proposal to extend the control of badgers into the Low Risk Area (LRA) of England. This would be where the disease is found in badgers and is linked to infection in cattle. The proposals to control badgers includes culling.
Both consultations close on 15th April 2018 and can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb/bovine-tb-badger-control-areas/ and https://consult.defra.gov.uk/bovine-tb/badger-control-in-low-risk-area-england/ respectively.
TB Surveillance in Wildlife
The final announcement from DEFRA is the results from the 2016 TB surveillance of badgers in the nine areas where badger culling has taken place in the High Risk Area (HRA) of England. The release also includes data from the on-going surveillance in eastern Cumbria, a LRA, which also has information on the TB surveillance of ‘found dead’ in the same area. Infected badgers have been found and the collection of carcasses remains on-going. Further information and the results can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-surveillance-in-wildlife-in-england-2016-to-2017
