TB in cattle must be tackled with badger cull, insists Owen Paterson

Writing exclusively in the Shropshire Star, the North Shropshire MP said tackling the disease in cattle was vital in order to protect the livelihoods of farmers both in the county and across the UK.

He said the disease had already cost the country £500 million over the past 10 years and estimated that figure would rise to £1 billion over the next decade if the disease was left unchecked.

But the government minister has faced fierce criticism, being heckled by anti-badger cull campaigners when he arrived to formally open Oswestry's new £30 million health centre yesterday.

Campaigners from Shropshire and North Wales chanted, shouted and banged drums as he arrived at the new £30 million health centre yesterday.

The protesters shouted "badger killer", "blood on your hands" and "shame on you".

Police attended but did not need to take any action after it was agreed the protesters would allow the unveiling of a plaque outside the centre to go ahead unhindered.

Mr Paterson later agreed to meet two of the campaigners, including Tristan Pearce.

He said: "It was good of him to agree to have the meeting but we didn't get anywhere. He is adamant the cull is the best way forward and won't change his mind."

The campaigners gathered outside the centre yesterday to wait for the North Shropshire MP to arrive.

Once the formal opening procedures were completed the MP invited two of the cull campaigners to meet him for talks.

Mr Pearce said the meeting gave him a chance to get across his view that there were other ways to tackle TB in rural areas.

He said: "There is no need at all to shoot the animals. They can trap them and test them. There are charities which will vaccinate badgers for farmers for £20 an animal.

"Two years ago they said they would start field trials for cattle vaccination but that has not started. It is the cattle population that they need to look at."

But Mr Paterson accused the campaigners of misleading their supporters over the availability of a cattle vaccine.

He said: "There is no vaccine, I simply don't have a button which I can press which says 'vaccinate' and it will be done.

"They are misleading people by pedlling out that we have a vaccine we can use. There is no clinically effective and legal vaccine. A cull is not something we glibly blunder into but what we are doing is necessary.

"Until we have a vaccine we must look at what is going on in Australia, the USA and certainly Ireland which have been using the tools available to bring a massive reduction in the level of TB in the countryside.

"The protesters need to make sure they don't over-exaggerate the level of support they have."

Other campaigners who attended yesterday's protest said they were adamant the Government had got it wrong on their bovine TB strategy.

Protester Diane Bartlett, who lives near Shrewsbury, said: "The Government has wasted £50 million of taxpayers' money on research to see if a badger cull was worth doing.

"There was no scientific proof but they went ahead anyway.

"The research came back to say it would make matters worse."