Labour Spokesperson for Rural Affairs JOYCE WATSON AM has welcomed the Assembly Rural Affairs Sub-Committee’s report into the effects of Bovine TB.
Bovine TB continues to be a major source of frustration for Wales’ farmers as incidents of disease continue to increase year on year. Wales’ farmers are anxious for a solution to this disease to allow healthy populations of cattle and wildlife to live side by side.
The Welsh Assembly Government has set aside £27m to be spent between 2008 and 2011 on a TB eradication programme.
Labour Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales JOYCE WATSON AM said:
“The current situation is not sustainable. Bovine TB is a chronic problem in Wales which has deeply damaging effects on our farming industry.
“Compensation payments now cost the Assembly Government more than £10 million a year and the taxpayer in Wales has paid out £25 million over the past three years. This is why this report and the Assembly Government's £27 million allocation for a Bovine TB strategy is so timely.
“With such a contentious and often emotive debate it is important that we build consensus where it can be found and draw policy from the scientific evidence.
“This report rightly identifies the need for a holistic approach which - with eradication of the disease as the ultimate long-term aim - also adopts firm short-term strategies and targets for controlling the disease; focussing on tighter bio security and more stringent testing regimes.”
3rd March 2008
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