Paice: Defra fail to get a handle on endemic diseases
4 March 2009
Commenting on Wednesday’s National Audit Office report ‘The health of livestock and honeybees in England’, Shadow Agriculture Minister, Jim Paice said:
“The NAO is right to highlight Defra’s failure to tackle endemic diseases such as bovine TB and Varroa, which are causing enormous damage to the farming industry. We warned the Government about Varroa over 10 years ago whilst the latest figures for TB show a 20% increase. This complacent attitude to both diseases is the sign of a Government which cannot make decisions.
“There is clearly a need to improve collaborative working between Government, local authorities and industry to enable better control of disease and the proper enforcement of cattle testing.
“Defra advice to farmers on bovine TB focuses on measures to reduce the risk of infection presented by badgers, yet the NAO suggests that the Department doesn’t know what those measures should be. At the same time Ministers continue to ignore the reservoir of infection in wildlife when it comes to tackling the disease.
“If we are to get to grips with this terrible disease we need a comprehensive package of measures rather than the piecemeal approach adopted by the Government.”