§ Ms CorstonTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will place in the Library the results from tests carried out on badgers culled by his officials at Amberley, Stroud; [3761]
(2) what factors underlay his Department's decision to kill 30 badgers at Amberley, Stroud; and if he will make a statement. [3762]
§ Mrs. BrowningSeventeen badgers—not 30—have recently been culled from a farm in the vicinity of Amberley, Stroud. Laboratory cultures on tissues from these badgers has not yet been completed—this normally takes six to eight weeks—but I will place the result in the Library of the House when available.
The approach taken before a decision to kill any a badgers for tuberculosis control purposes is as follows. After a confirmed outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, a veterinary investigation is undertaken. All possible causes other than badgers are considered. If all are ruled out and there is evidence of badger activity on the farm, a badger source is suspected.
Any action to trap and humanely kill the badgers on the affected land will be authorised by senior veterinary staff if there has been a previous outbreak within the same parish in the previous six years, as was the case at 98W Amberley. If there has been no outbreak within this time period, the evidence is considered by a sub-committee of the independent consultative panel on badgers and bovine tuberculosis. Where it is believed that the disease was transmitted to cattle on part of the farm, only badgers which use that part of the farm may be trapped and humanely killed.
Badgers can be trapped and humanely killed only by the Ministry's wildlife unit on that part of the farm where it is believed that the disease was transmitted to the reactor cattle, or the whole of the farm if it is not possible to be more precise.