Vaccinations tackle TB

Farmers throughout Wales have registered their protests too.

Recent months have seen public meetings being held in Pembrokeshire by landowners furious that less work appears to be taking place in Wales.

The government has a five-point research programme and control strategy to tackle TB in cattle.

There are lessons to be learned from the slow implementation of the trial

Report by Independent Scientific Group

The centrepiece of which is the Krebs programme including a controversial cull of badgers.

Various badger control methods are currently being compared.

These include pro-active culling, and reactive culling following the discovery of bovine TB in herds.

Delay "regrettable"

But the MPs point out that the timetable has slipped from that projected by the original Krebs report.

The report describes the delay as "regrettable".

"Whilst we accept the Independent Scientific Group's assurance the trial is now on track and it may be as early as 2002 that we have some useful hard data that can be usefully translated into policy options'.

"It remains the case that results are not likely to be available until 2004: that is seven years after the publication of the Krebs report in December 1997.

Farmers co-operating

The report added: "This delay puts even greater pressure on those farmers whose support for the trial is vital to its success, but whose sense of desperation is growing as bovine TB in cattle continues to spread."

Up to 80% of farmers in England are reported to be co-operating with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food scheme.

But there are doubts over possible illegal actions outside the trial areas if the timetable is not rigorously adhered to and shortened, where this is possible without harming its scientific rigour, said the MPs.

The report concludes: "There are lessons to be learnt from the slow implementation of the trial but nothing to be gained, from abandoning it before it has had time to achieve robust results."

Waste of lives

Conservationists argue that badgers have been wrongly blamed for spreading TB. Dr Elaine King, a conservation officer with the National Federation of Badger Groups, says 30,000 have been killed during the past 25 years.

She fears the new study will mean 20,000 will have to die.

"It's a terrible waste of badgers' lives," she said.