Date 1st April 2011
The Badger Trust is appalled at the Government’s admission that some farmers have been swapping the identity of cattle so that more valuable animals– with TB– are illegally kept on farms. The Trust says that any plans to kill badgers in both England and Wales should be abandoned pending a full and thorough investigation of this shameful fraudulent practice.
Defra has revealed that an investigation instigated by Gloucestershire Trading Standards has been reviewing cattle with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) sent to two slaughterhouses. They admitted that some cattle farmers in the South West and the Midlands appear to have been switching cattle ear tags and sending less productive animals to slaughter.
David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said: “This fraud means offenders receive full compensation, paid for by the tax payer, for an animal that may well be worth a lot less, while infected but more productive cattle are retained on farms. The effect of these offences is apparent: the guilty parties are harbouring and spreading disease by keeping infected cattle on farms.
“They are letting down everyone who has worked hard to modify the restrictions on trading cattle from infected farms [1]”.
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is highly infectious to wildlife and other cattle. Both the National Farmers’ Union and the British Veterinary Association claim that only “some” farms are guilty of such practices without giving any reason for their minimal estimate. But the Badger Trust is seeking official confirmation that the fraud is limited and does not extend to very many more.
The offences have come to light at a time when there is growing concern over breaches of TB regulations.
In February the owners of the West country’s largest dairy herd of 900 cows were fined £7,200 and ordered to pay costs of £7,140 not only for moving cattle under TB restrictions, but also for entering a cow in a major pedigree show in Warwickshire. Cornwall’s animal health team manager said after the case that a large number of cattle passports overdue for return had been found on the premises. This was not the first time his inspectors had found problems with cattle passports.
The same month a Cheshire farmer admitted 87 offences of moving cattle in breach of bTB regulations and asked for 102 further offences to be taken into account. He was fined £5,756 and ordered to pay costs of £4,561. His son admitted eight offences and asked for 29 others to be taken into consideration. He was fined £558 and ordered to pay costs of £2,374.
Mr Williams said: “The cattle-based measures now in place depend absolutely on effective movement controls, honest and accurate record keeping and discipline. They have been producing heartening results without killing a single badger, particularly in Wales [2]. However, if badger culling had been introduced last year these improvements would have been claimed as ‘proof’ that culling had been necessary.
“The national bTB toll peaked two years ago. It had escalated after the suspension of testing during the epidemics of BSE and Foot and Mouth during the last decade and the industry’s stubborn resistance to movement controls. These were finally enforced five years ago, 16 years after the cattle slaughter began to surge”.
[1] Up to last November all cattle from farms where any animals had given a positive bTB test result were subject to a 60-day movement restriction preventing trading. Now, farmers whose holdings are under TB restriction can sell provided purchasers have a registered bTB holding certificate, with approved isolation units on their farm. There are more than 400 such holdings in the South West.
[2] Over the last two years the number of cattle slaughtered in Wales because of bTB fell by 36 percent (12,043 to 7690) and by 45 percent in Dyfed, where the intensive action badger culling area has been designated (8,361 to 3727). Officials claim this could be cyclical, but previous rises were before the present stringent controls were introduced.