The debate around badger culling is one of those emotive issues where you could have a set of facts which will be interpreted two completely opposite ways depending on your point of view.

It is also one of those issues where it seems that many national media outlets take an anti-farming stance aligned with campaign groups, and are willing to misinterpret information to suit their one-sided agenda. The misery that bovine TB heaps on to farming families hardly gets a mention.

But to be fair to politicians and civil servants in England, despite the negative headlines, they acted while those in NI dithered, and since 2013 a badger control policy has gradually been rolled out in TB hotspot areas, mainly in the southwest of the country.

It would be wrong for the local farming industry to take a view that a badger cull in NI is the solution to everything TB related. It is only part of the answer

In the period since, over 67,000 badgers have been culled and this has led to some significant reductions in new bovine TB breakdowns. That is especially the case for a cull area within Gloucestershire, where incidence rates were 66% lower after four years of culling (2013 to 2017) than a similar area outside the cull zone.

However, there are reports that incidence rates have risen in the Gloucestershire area in 2018, which again highlights just how complex the disease is.

Therefore, it would be wrong for the local farming industry to take a view that a badger cull in NI is the solution to everything TB related. It is only part of the answer, and if we are ever to get on top of this disease farmers will have to play their part.

That potentially means accepting stricter animal movement controls, improving farm biosecurity and making a financial contribution to overall disease control.

But before all that, we need some positive action by DAERA on wildlife intervention before another year is allowed to drift by.

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