Defra TB Plan Must Support Scottish Approach
15/12/05

NFU Scotland believes the measures announced today by Defra to control bovine tuberculosis (TB) in England must lead to improved control of the disease there. That will help to protect Scotland’s cattle and wildlife populations from the disease. Cases of bovine TB in Scotland remain extremely low. There have been 11 cases of TB recorded in Scotland so far this year. By the 31 October 2005, England and Wales had recorded 1600 cases.

Scotland has already implemented its own legislation requiring all cattle imported into Scotland from high risk TB areas to be tested both prior to movement into Scotland and after their arrival in the country.

The Defra testing measures take effect on 20 February 2006. They do not go as far as the Scottish measures, restricting the testing system to a pre-movement test and, in year one, to cattle aged over 15 months. From March 2007, that requirement will be extended to all cattle aged over six weeks, in line with the Scottish rules.

Defra proposes a standard valuation system for cattle compensation, a move away from individual valuation that the Scottish Executive continues to support in Scotland and NFUS believes is vital to ensure fair compensation. Defra has also announced a consultation on badger culling. Both the Executive and NFUS believe the current level of TB in Scotland’s wildlife does not warrant such action.

Chairman of the NFUS Livestock Committee is Nigel Miller. He said:

“The worse the disease problem gets south of the border, the greater the danger of it moving north. So, Defra has to get a better grip on the situation in England.

“We already have pre- and post-movement testing in place in Scotland and we are glad that Defra is now playing catch up with its own legislation. The exclusion of cattle aged under 15 months from the English testing system in year one is a concern. We fully support the more rigorous approach taken by the Executive which demands that pre- and post- movement tests are taken on all cattle aged over 6 weeks. At least England will move to that from 2007. That will ensure consistency across GB and provide legal support to the demands of Scottish producers to have these tests done.

“We would resist any Scottish proposals for standard valuations and we welcome the Executive’s ongoing objective to pay fair compensation for cattle compulsorily slaughtered and its plans to continue with individual valuations. The experience of foot and mouth showed that, if properly managed, objective and individual valuations work even in the most difficult of situations.

“As things stand, we wouldn’t support a badger cull in Scotland based on current evidence. The continued monitoring of wildlife is important and we are working constructively with the charity Scottish Badgers to that end.”

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