DUP MLA Paul Frew has said the commencement of badger culling in England has revealed the DARD's "slow reaction" to tackling the Bovine TB disease in Northern Ireland.

Mr Frew, who is Chair of the Assembly's Agriculture Committee, explained: "The spread of Bovine TB is not just an issue to farmers because of the impact upon their business, but to everyone because of the huge amount of public money which we spend on compensation for affected animals.

"There is no doubt that Bovine TB cannot be attributed to a single factor, but we cannot escape the fact either that every country which has successfully tackled this disease has put a focus on the reservoir of infection amongst wildlife.

"In the Republic of Ireland we have seen action taken and now in England we have seen the start of a cull there. However, DARD's approach all too often has simply been to call for further research and study. Only after sustained pressure by the Agriculture Committee did the Minister finally announce some progress towards tackling the disease, but the progress on taking this forward is very slow.

"There can be no doubt that a multi-faceted approach will be necessary to tackle Bovine TB, but we are still waiting for the TVR (Test, Vaccinate and Release) model to deal with the disease. Whilst this kind of slow progress continues then we will still spend tens of millions of pounds simply dealing with the effects of this disease rather than than putting our focus on its eradication."

Yesterday (27 August), the National Farmers' Union confirmed a badger cull had started in England – despite meeting severe resistance.

Over the next six weeks, around 5,000 badgers are expected to be killed in controlled shooting in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Supporters of the methods say it is necessary to tackle bovine TB which can be spread from infected badgers, but those opposed say it is inhumane and ineffective.

(JP/CD)