Owen Paterson: Badger cull to go ahead in summer

Speaking at the NFU's annual conference, the North Shropshire MP announced that planned culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire this summer had passed the final conditions to go ahead

Mr Paterson's announcement drew loud applause from farmers while campaigners against the cull protested at the entrance to Birmingham's International Conference Centre.

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Mr Paterson told the conference: "26,000 cattle were slaughtered because of TB in 2011, and it has cost £500 million pounds in the last 10 years. That will rise to £1 billion in the next decade if left unchecked. It's completely unacceptable.

"Research in this country over the last 15 years has demonstrated cattle and badgers transmit disease to each other, but culling of the badgers can lead to a reduction in disease in cattle if it is over a large enough area over a long enough period of time.

"Badger control is, however, only part of the solution. We will not achieve eradication of TB unless we continue to tackle cattle to cattle transmission too."

The move was welcomed by NFU president Peter Kendall who said it would have been easy for the Environment Secretary to let TB slip down the list of priorities after last year's delay.

He backed Mr Paterson for working to ensure that the pilots were up and running this summer and that there would be a full roll-out of the cull next year.

Mr Paterson also used his speech to discuss the horse meat scandal, his support of genetic modification of crops, and flooding.

He also praised the latest technological advances being pioneered at Harper Adams University near Newport.

The conference continues until tomorrow.