THE culling of thousands of badgers to help find the solution to the spread of tuberculosis in cattle continues to cause much controversy all over Britain.

The subject is particularly relevant in Herefordshire where the disease has spread on farms to alarming proportions and sites have been established for a scientific study following the recommendations outlined in the Krebs research report into the transmission of TB between badgers and cattle.

Local farmers are understandably worried and desperate to solve the problem because TB in cattle has increased by more than 50 per cent in the area during the past year.

But members of badger groups, including those belonging to the Herefordshire one, are against the cull and would prefer the money spent on developing a vaccine and researching other factors.

Dairy herds

So the prospect of hearing a well-known local veterinary surgeon talking on the subject of badgers, dairy cattle and TB drew a good-sized audience at the Birches Community Forum, Little Birch, near Hereford.

And by the end of the evening, no-one was left in any doubt about the size of the problem.

The talk was by Mr Arthur Wrigley, who visits local dairy herds, where TB is present. He was able to speak with considerable practical knowledge about the current situation and he made it clear that there was no question that the increase of TB in dairy herds, beginning five years ago, and spreading northwards from Cornwall, was due to infection caused by badgers.

He pointed out that 85 per cent of badgers caught locally were infected with TB and that in recent post-mortems, six out of eight badgers were found to have had gross TB and two mild TB.

And Mr Wrigley added that as a result the sale of dairy cattle in local markets, as elsewhere in the UK, had been very substantially reduced.

"Insurance schemes are inadequate and with regulations becoming more and more complicated with massive paperwork requirements, the cash flow problem for farmers is increasingly ominous and would in time affect the whole community," said Mr Wrigley.

The fact that badgers were a protected species had ensured that their numbers had increased three-fold in recent years, he went on.

"In my view, the introduction of maize, which badgers would travel distances to reach, breaking through fences and into mangers to get to, has undoubtedly compounded the problem."

Cattle eating maize, which had been contaminated by TB-infected badgers, developed the infection from bacteria which could survive outside the animals for a considerable time, multiplying in damp, warm conditions.

The infection then spread through the herd.

Mr Wrigley believed that the countryside would be the poorer without badgers, but his experience had convinced him that culling would have to be practised, despite the affection that many, himself included, felt for them.

If the badgers were not dealt with, he stressed, the situation would go on and on.

He said that it was believed that it would be ten years before an effective vaccine was available.

Cows were the livelihood of farmers and if TB was caused by badgers, the badgers must be culled with the possibility of introducing 'clean' badgers after an interval. This solution could bring its own difficulties, as the TB bacteria could survive for six months in a sett after badgers had been killed.

"Culling in areas where TB was rife has had the result of achieving a noticeable decline in bovine TB," he said.

Mr Wrigley acknowledged that the whole problem was a political one, with many people strongly opposed to the culling of badgers.

But he could see no alternative if dairy farming was to survive.

Together with culling, which was now officially recommended for ten areas in the UK, including Herefordshire, Mr Wrigley suggested that keeping fewer dairy cattle and ceasing to grow maize would reduce TB in dairy herds.

A vote of thanks to Mr Wrigley, was given by Mr Mike Morley, who said that the speaker was not a man to shy away from controversy and at the same time had provided a fascinating account of an increasingly serious problem.

The report on Mr Wrigley's talk was submitted by Margaret Sutton, secretary of the Forum.