Bovine TB warningfor future of dairyfarming

Mark Casci Agricultural Correspondent

THE Government’s former chief scientific advisor has warned that Britain may be unable to continue as a dairy farming country if action is not taken to prevent the spread of bovine TB.

Sir David King said that he found it difficult to understand why “it is acceptable to take out dairy cattle diagnosed with TB, but not to take out wildlife diagnosed with TB”.

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The remarks are likely to heap further pressure on the Government to abandon its refusal to order a cull of badgers, the animals thought to be responsible for the spread of the virus.

More than 16,000 dairy cattle were slaughtered in the last milk year, causing the equivalent of 114 million litres of milk supply to be lost.

And with the number of dairy farms having halved in Yorkshire in the last decade fears continue to grow about the industry’s future, with milk production now at its lowest level since 1973.

Speaking in London at the annual City Food Lecture, Sir David said: “We need to work hard with the public in making them understand what needs to be done if this problem is to solved.

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“It is true that taking cattle out with TB, which we are doing very strenuously as a Government, does slow the process down but we cannot ignore the fact that we have bovine TB in cattle and also bovine TB in badgers.

“As long as there is a large residue of TB in the wild I don’t believe this problem will be managed.

“I wonder whether Britain will still be a dairy farming country if this continues. The problem needs to be addressed with great seriousness.”

The Welsh Assembly has already defied the Defra ban on badger culling to prevent the spread of TB and last week ordered the trapping and shooting of badgers in a 180 square mile area in north Pembrokeshire, with officials saying they intended to reduce the badger population “as far as we can” during limited culls over five years.

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The disease itself reached Yorkshire last year, with a couple of farmers forced to cull their stock as a result.

Sir David also spoke of the need for what he called a more “open-minded” approach to genetically modified food production, saying that in the context of the requirement that the country has to double its food supply by 2050 there was a “desperate need for biotechnology”.

Sir David, who held the role as chief scientific advisor for seven years before stepping down in 2007, pointed to the recent example of the development of submergent-tolerant rice in China which can survive heavy flooding.

Sir David said heavy flooding in rice paddy fields contributed towards the high food prices seen in 2007 and 2008. Had GM technology been used it would have taken just two years to develop this strain of submergence tolerance, rather than the 15 it actually took.

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While acknowledging the controversy on the issue of GM technology, Sir David said that it was important to “regulate the product not the process”.

A Defra spokesman told the Yorkshire Post: “Government recognises the seriousness of the bovine TB situation, the impact that it has on the farming community and is committed to working with stakeholders to tackle the disease.

“We continue to work closely with these stakeholders, and invest heavily in research, to enhance the existing disease control framework and reduce the impacts of the disease on industry and the taxpayer.

“We have measures in place to reduce spread and incidence of disease which include, regular testing, taking a zero tolerance approach to overdue tests, and pre-movement testing.”