Badger Trust issues a new guide to tackling bTB in Wales
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Aug 7, 2024
- 2 min read
The guide shows how the Welsh Government’s approach is far more comprehensive and effective than that in England.
The bovine TB policy in Wales follows the science and applies stricter controls to cattle through:
● country-wide annual testing
● often using more accurate tests
● restrictions to cattle movement
● mandated basic farm biosecurity measures.
The policy in Wales is an evidence-based, humane policy for bTB control in wildlife. This approach has shown that there is a world in which wildlife and cattle can coexist and where farming industries can be protected. Its success has proven that a scientific, effective, and humane bTB control strategy is the way forward.
Wales does not cull its badgers. The contrast with England is stark, where the ineffective and unethical badger cull is used and where a weaker and less reliable testing regime is in place, alongside less rigorous restrictions to cattle movements and weaker farm biosecurity measures. This also means that bTB figures emerging from England are likely to be less reliable and rigorous than from Wales or Scotland
Peter Hambly, Chief Executive of Badger Trust said:
“Wales is showing England the way forward on stopping bTB spread. Bovine TB is spread mainly from cattle to cattle, so that’s where the focus is. Targeting wildlife such as badgers is ineffective and cruel — it’s a costly distraction when you need to focus resources on cattle.”
Download the Wales Edition of Tackling Bovine TB Together
National Day of Action Against the Cull
Badger Trust has called a National Day of Action Against the Cull outside the UK Parliament in London on Tuesday, 3 September. If you can’t make it, we ask that you make an appointment to see your newly elected MP in your local area that week to show your opposition to England’s unpopular badger cull.
