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The new bovine TB strategy for England, published this week and backed by a commitment to deploy a cattle vaccine by 2030, has been broadly welcomed by those closest to the disease.
But for the farmers who have lived with it for decades, the strategy lands against a backdrop of exhaustion and frustration.
In the latest ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Guardian Podcast, FG's livestock specialist Ellie Layton is joined at the Royal Cornwall Show by Gloucestershire beef farmer and TB Partnership member Paul Westaway; Cornish dairy farmer and FG columnist Alan Carter, who has farmed under TB restrictions for nearly 18 years, and Somerset vet Ed Simmons, bTB lead for the British Cattle Veterinary Association. Together they offer some of the most candid, authentic voices in the debate.
Vaccine
While Alan said the vaccine did offer some hope in the future, he said it was wrong to put the emphasis on cattle and highlighted the need for infection to be controlled in wildlife in tandem.
"I think unless we deal with both problems properly, we're just never going to achieve anything because we can't hammer cattle all the time and expect the problem to go away," he said.
"If some of the expense, some of the attitude was put so strongly towards the wildlife population as what it is on the cattle, I think we could have a real good chance of sorting the problem out."
Paul agreed there was a tendency to blame farmers when it came to biosecurity. He said: "Our farm has a motorway through it and two footpaths. You can't do with a beef or dairy farm what you can do with a poultry unit."
On vaccination, there was cautious hope.
Phase 3 field trials of the cattle vaccine are under way, and the panel acknowledged the science is closer than it has ever been, but stress that the DIVA (Detect Infected among Vaccinated Animals) test and lifting of restrictions on selling vaccinated animals' meat and milk must come with it.
Perhaps the sharpest call to action came from vet Ed Simmons.
Following the strategy's calls to depoliticise the disease. He said: "By the next General Election, bTB should have its own governance that is nothing to do with party politics and point scoring. bTB should be owned by the farming industry alone."
