Comment

Andrew George, MP for the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Constituency of St. Ives, has called on the Government to allow farmers, scientists and environmentalists to work on their own local action plans to combat Bovine Tuberculosis in hotspot areas.

Mr George questioned the Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, following his Department's statement which ruled out a nationwide badger cull to combat the disease. Mr George repeated a proposal, first submitted to the Government and its independent scientific group over three years ago. This was to set up Regional Action Partnerships capable of pooling local knowledge and expertise on the problems within the locality instead of simply offering a blanket strategy that fails to take into account local conditions. Responses to bTB that are tailored to local needs are not currently included in the Government's national strategy.

Mr Benn welcomed Mr George's remarks as a "helpful suggestion", adding that he was waiting for the industry to engage with him on the subject. Following the exchange which took place on the floor of the House today, Mr George has written to the Secretary of State requesting a follow-up meeting to discuss how his proposals could be taken forward. The proposals were first outlined in February 2005 and incorporated into an article by Mr George published in the Farmer's Guardian.

Commenting after the exchange Mr George said: "The debate about how best to control the serious problem of bovine T.B. has become polarised between those farmers who favour the extermination of the badger and animal rights activists who want to protect every one of them, come what may.

"Sound science has shown that, in some circumstances, badger culling can be counter-productive. But the fact is that no two areas are alike and the best method of controlling bovine T.B. would, in my view, have to involve the pooling of as much evidence and local knowledge as could be gathered together within a region defined by its topographical integrity.

"Farmers, scientists and environmental bodies should pool their knowledge with the objective of bringing forward strategies which successfully reduce the incidence of bovine T.B. within their area. It's really no good just waiting for the answers to arrive from Whitehall. Pre and post movement testing and other national standards should, of course, apply. But the effort required to eradicate the disease from both cattle and wildlife in a locality is best achieved locally.

12:22pm Monday 21st July 2008

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login