TB is a serious animal health problem and is devastating for affected farmers. Nearly 25,000 cattle were slaughtered in England last year. The cost of the disease to the taxpayer is huge and set to reach £1 billion in England over the next ten years if we do not take more action.

The UK already has a robust set of cattle controls in place, and the Government plan to strengthen them further, but scientific evidence shows that unless we tackle bovine TB in badgers we will never eradicate it in cattle. Ultimately the Government want to be able to vaccinate both cattle and badgers and plan to invest a further £20 million over the next five years on the development of usable badger and cattle vaccines. However these are still years away, and we cannot say with any certainty if, or when, they will be ready. The Government is working with the European Commission to try to find a way of speeding up the vaccination process.

Nobody wants to cull badgers unnecessarily but in the fight against Bovine TB we have to use the weapons available to us. The Government has been clear that the pilots must be carried out in accordance with strict licensing conditions so that they are effective, safe and humane.