By Debbie James

CLAIMS that Wales is pressing ahead with targeted badger culling on farms with persistent bovine TB infection have been strongly denied by the Welsh Government.

As new figures point to an increase of 88% in the badger population in Wales and England since the 1980s, a row has broken out over comments attributed to Wales chief veterinary officer Christianne Glossop at a bovine TB symposium held at Imperial College, London.

The row broke out after reports on broadcast news media that Professor Glossop had suggested that badgers would be humanely killed on as many as 60 farms that had been battling TB for a decade or more.

But in a statement, the Welsh Government flatly denied this.

“There has been no change in our policy decision,’’ said a spokesman.

He added that there had been no new announcement on the TB Eradication Programme either.

“As part of a consultation on our approach to tackling TB, published in October, we set out a range of proposals. These included learning from a pilot in Northern Ireland where, in very specific circumstances, badgers were cage-trapped and infected groups of animals were humanely killed.

“We continue to rule out an England-style cull of badgers where farmers are licensed to free-shoot both infected and healthy badgers.’’

Bovine TB has proved difficult to eradicate on many farms in west Wales and along the border with England. They include dairy as well as beef farms.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales said the possibility of a targeted cull had been referred to by the Welsh Government in statements over recent months.

“We therefore look forward to seeing more details regarding such an approach. It is essential that such a policy is sufficiently robust to tackle the TB epidemic in badgers which is causing so much suffering for Welsh farming

families,’’ said a FUW spokesperson.

In its response to the bovine TB consultation, NFU Cymru welcomed the recognition from the government of the need to take appropriate interventions to break the transmission routes of disease between cattle and wildlife.

“The urgent need for a comprehensive TB eradication strategy that actively removes the reservoir of infection in both the cattle and wildlife populations is as great as it has ever been and we very much hope that the Welsh Government will move forward with these interventions without delay,’’ said the union’s president, Stephen James.

Meanwhile, new research based on a survey of badger setts in Wales and England, has estimated that there are approximately 485,000 badgers in these two countries.

The report – Abundance of badgers (Meles meles) in England and Wales – suggests that the results are consistent with a “marked increase” in the badger population since the 1980s.

A previous study estimated the badger population in the UK in the 1980s was approximately 250,000 badgers.

“The evidence suggests the badger population in England and Wales has increased substantially since the 1980s,” said the report.

“The badger population estimate presented here is almost double the previous estimate for the whole of Great Britain.”