I was pleased to meet you at Pershore College yesterday, and you may recall that I took the opportunity to introduce myself and for a brief conversation about TB. It seems that this is an appropriate time to pass to you my strongly held opinions.

  Please be under no illusions as to the importance of the recent spread: it is very serious indeed. Very many farms in Herefordshire have had this problem—repeatedly.

  My farm at Bosbury has been fortunate until recently; however we have now had two occasions of Movement orders, and we have seen eight productive cows sent for slaughter. My information is that we were the last farm in the parish to suffer in this way.

  We have a farm at Castle Frome that has had no grazing livestock for 30 years, and no neighbouring cattle, and "reactors" have occurred a few months ago.

  At Powick (nearer to mid-Worcester now!) for the first time in recent years, there have been reactors: on two occasions as far as we are concerned, and for several neighbours (including one who raises Pedigree Highland cattle and Llamas).

  MAFF vets, under a terrible paperwork system, seem very stretched indeed. I believe they are barely coping. And the administrative cost must be high.

  The cost to the Exchequer must be very substantial. At least we have the value of the stock returned to us. The cost in terms of "consequential loss" and disruption remains with the farmer.

  The remedy for BSE has involved such huge numbers of slaughtered and incinerated animals that a few more may seem irrelevant. However I dislike a wasteful loss of life for domestic farm animals.

  What everybody fears has not yet materialised. But no-one should be surprised if there is a food scare. I believe the policies are flawed, so we can only expect our Ministry to engage in damage limitation.

  Rolling on from this, just as beef exports are being re-started, TB danger could be a legitimate cause for re-imposition of an export ban. What a cost that would be!

  So what is Government and MAFF doing?

—  Apparently NOTHING.

—  Fiddling whilst the problem worsens.

—  A major problem, and no strategic guidance or plan. No hope.

  We have academics who make a business of arguing to the contrary. We have people who are misguided by a sentimental view of wild life, and I don't believe we have figures in terms of populations etc. But very simply, as all farmers and stock keepers will have observed—there has been a steady increase in badgers since the Tory government passed the Mammal Bill, and the incidence of TB has followed it consistently.

  I personally doubt the motives and good sense of anyone who seriously questions the statement that badgers are the major vector causing the problem.

  Two years ago 24 badgers were trapped from "Beacon Hill" near Bosbury. On examination eight (33 per cent) were found to be infected with TB.

  The badger is incontinent. It drips urine constantly—each of its tracks across a pasture is potentially infected.

  The colonies are so frequent and so heavily populated that the species is unable to naturally regenerate a healthy population.

  It is time that this nettle was grasped. I appreciate the need for political sensitivity but the present clearance areas are too small and the time-scale too protracted. Mr Rooker needs to appreciate the need for prompter action.

  To permit farms and landowners to kill badgers by prescribed means is the answer.

—  This would not involve cruelty.

—  It would not exterminate the species.

—  It would not involve MAFF and others being on public display whilst carrying out the task in hot-spot areas.

—  It would leave a smaller but healthier badger population.

—  It would save the mindless waste of livestock from our farms.

—  It would save the costs involved and the costly disruption to farmers' livelihoods.

—  It would avoid the distinct possibility of our produce and livestock being perceived at home and abroad as infected and unfit.

  There is still time for Government to be pro-active in limiting the TB problem. Your Committee has an important role in this, and I wish you luck in the process.

22 January 1999