bTB resignation – condemnation grows
The Farmer's Union of Wales (FUW) has praised the decision by Professor Chris Pollock, formerly the Acting Chief Scientist of Wales and a previous Director of Aberystwyth's Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, to resign in protest at the decision by the Welsh government to pursue a policy of vaccinating badgers instead of culling to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
Commenting, the FUW's TB spokesman Brian Walters said that “The evidence given to the government shows that its decision will cost the taxpayer at least an extra £3.5 million and is not backed up by the science. Now we have a world renowned scientist who has been an adviser to the Welsh Government for many years saying the same, and sacrificing his position in protest. His decision to resign over the government’s cowardly and scandalous betrayal of the farming industry is a noble one, and highlights the need for an inquiry into this issue.”
Also commenting, Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs Antoinette Sandbach argued that “This resignation is a damning indictment of the Minister’s bovine TB U-turn...If he does not have the confidence of his own scientific advisers, how can he claim that his decision to pursue vaccination was based on evidence, and not on a cynical political calculation?”
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
