§ Dr. David Clarkasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the current policy of the badger control section of his Department in connection with Clouts Wood nature reserve in Wiltshire.
§ Mrs. Fenner[pursuant to her reply, 2 December 1985, c. 99Tuberculosis has been disclosed in a cattle herd close to the Clouts Wood reserve and disease has been confirmed in badgers using the breakdown farm. In these circumstances I have decided there is no option but to carry out a badger control operation. However, we are not at present proposing to set traps in Clouts Wood and I have undertaken to write to the Wiltshire Trust for Nature Conservation if we later decide to do so.
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§ Dr. David Clarkasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what has been the cost in each of the last 10 years of badger control.
§ Mrs. Fenner[pursuant to her reply, 2 December 1985, c. 99A recent update of previous figures puts the estimate of operational costs of badger control in England and Wales at an average of £310,000 per annum over the last 10 years. An important contributory factor in this increase was the change from gassing to trapping as the principal method of control.