Badgers And Tuberculosis In Cattle

EDM number 504 in 1991-92, proposed by Tony Banks on 20/01/1992.

That this House notes that there is no evidence that the Ministry of Agriculture's badger culling programme, at an annual cost to tax payers approaching ú500,000, is having any effect on the incidence of tuberculosis in cattle; further notes that there is scant scientific evidence for the transmission of tuberculosis from badgers to cattle and that there is probably more evidence for the transmission of tuberculosis from cattle to badgers; believes that the additional cost to tax payers of compensating farmers fully for infected cattle, at about ú400,000 in a bad year and less than ú300.000 in a typical year, would be less than the cost of continuing the badger culling programme; and calls on this Government to impose an immediate moratorium on badger culling pending a review of the situation and to reconsider the level of compensation paid to farmers for cattle infected with tuberculosis.

This motion has been signed by a total of 89 MPs.