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Defra ministers should climb off the fence and follow the lead set by the Welsh Assembly Government in taking a proactive approach to eradicating the menace of Bovine TB.

That's the message from landowners in the South West who say that TB is endemic in badgers and needs to be dealt with in the interests of badger welfare as well as in the interests of disease control in cattle and other animals.

The CLA says that ministers have prevaricated for too long to avoid taking the only rational decision available to them - which is to include a cull of infected badgers as part of a package of measures to wipe out a disease which has now been identified as posing a threat to human health.

John Mortimer, South West Regional Director of the CLA, the rural economy experts, said: "The cost of TB in human misery, domestic and wild animal welfare and in financial terms is spiralling. The current control mechanisms employed in England are clearly not working - yet the government continues to fiddle while an industry burns.

"We must break the myths and prejudices that surround this disease. It is not simply a disease of cattle which can be controlled by measures applied only to cattle. It is endemic in the wildlife population and as such it must be controlled by a comprehensive package of measures including badger culling."

Mr Mortimer said the announcement by the Welsh Rural Affairs minister that he will introduce measures which will include tests to establish the extent of the disease in all cattle herds, the removal of all sources of infection on farms and a review of the compensation system.

"That must have sent a huge sigh of relief down the valleys - but it is a sigh which needs an echo here in the South West and throughout the rest of England. Surely now the status quo can no longer be an option for Defra," he said.

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