HC Deb 10 December 1976 vol 922 cc364-5W
Mr. Watkinson

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what measures are presently being taken in Gloucestershire concerning badgers with suspected bovine tuberculosis.

Mr. Strang

Five teams of specially trained staff of my Department are currently working in those localities in North Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire where badgers have been found to be infected with bovine tuberculosis. Two of these teams are operating in an area around the town of Thornbury, comprising parts of North Avon and Gloucestershire, in which a comparatively high number of cattle herds have been found to be infected with tuberculosis in recent years. Parts of this area are being cleared of badgers and will be kept free of them for a period in order to establish whether operations on this scale will eradicate the disease in the area.

The remaining three teams are operating in other areas in the three counties where herd breakdowns have occurred and where the disease has been found to exist in badgers and no other origin for the disease in cattle has been established

A full account of the measures we have taken in these and other counties in the South-West is contained in a Report published by my Department on 3rd December and to which I referred in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Ormskirk (Mr. Kilroy-Silk) on that day.—[Vol. 921, c. 278-9.]

Mr. Watkinson

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many badgers have been gassed in Gloucestershire because of suspected bovine turberculosis.

Mr. Strang

It is not possible to state the number with any precision. Up to 3rd December 1976. 510 sets in Gloucestershire have been gassed but many are likely to have been unoccupied at the time.

Mr. Watkinson

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what criteria are adopted in deciding whether or not to use gas to kill a badger which might have bovine tuberculosis.

Mr. Strang

Operations to eliminate badger colonies are undertaken when there is clear evidence, confirmed by laboratory tests, that they are infected with bovine tuberculosis. Gassing, which is the most humane and effective method, is used in the great majority of cases but when this is impracticable other methods are adopted.