January 28, 2021 Defra Bovine TB Consultation and Calls for views

Today Defra has launched a public consultation and call for views on a range of proposals and longer-term options, in keeping with the government response to Professor Sir Charles Godfray’s 2018 independent review of the bTB eradication strategy.

Natural England (NE) has also published several documents in relation to the animal disease bovine tuberculosis (bTB) on GOV.UK.

Consultation

The consultation sets out proposals for NE to stop issuing the current intensive cull licences for new areas post 2022 and enable new licences issued to be cut short if the Chief Veterinary Officer considers this acceptable. As well as proposals to restrict any new supplementary cull licences to two years and cease re-issuing such licences in any areas in which supplementary culling has previously been licensed.

Proposals also include some targeted changes to our cattle bTB testing policy, to ensure we root out the disease more effectively in herds with recurring problems, and further help protect lower bTB risk areas.

Further information can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tuberculosis-proposals-to-help-eradicate-disease-in-england

Call for views

These include possible further changes and improvements to bTB testing, supporting responsible cattle movements and rewarding low risk cattle purchasing behaviour.  Our call for views also discusses ways we can continue to adapt how we reward farmers for ’best practice‘, in line with our wider agricultural transition plan.

Further information can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tuberculosis-future-measures-to-help-eradicate-disease

Natural England has also published a series of documents relating to the 2020 intensive badger control operations, including:

  • NE Chief Scientist’s advice on outcome of ops, including effectiveness, humaneness and safety
  • CVO’s advice on disease control benefits
  • Annex-A1-Updating minimum and maximum numbers during 2020 badger control operations
  • Annex-A2-Data from the 2020 badger control operations
  • Annex-B-Summary of 2020 badger control compliance monitoring

Further information can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-summary-of-badger-control-monitoring-during-2020?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=8b5a6b87-9863-4b4b-a91e-0189e8621cda&utm_content=immediately

Categories: News

» «