Following the meeting Roger said: “We receive a huge amount of feedback from farmers across Wales about their distressing experiences related to the on-farm slaughter of TB reactors. Our bTB member survey last year, which was completed by over 500 farmers across Wales, further evidenced this with many respondents detailing the substantial amount of stress and emotional turmoil experienced by farming families related to this issue.
Extremely welcome
"It is therefore extremely welcome that Welsh Government has committed to reviewing this policy.
“As part of our evidence we put forward several recommendations developed by the NFU Cymru TB Focus Group which seek to minimise the practise wherever possible and encourage Welsh Government to look at alternative approaches which could be employed to reduce the policy’s traumatic impact, without risking disease control. We have also suggested that a more flexible and pragmatic approach to bTB reactor removal, which could be developed between APHA, the farmer and the farmers’ private vet, could also offer solutions for reducing the number of bTB reactors dispatched on farm.”
NFU Cymru understands that the Bovine TB TAG will be reviewing the policy before making a recommendation to the CVO for Wales. Given the distressing impact that on farm slaughter continues to cause to farming families who are suffering a bovine TB breakdown across Wales, NFU Cymru urge Welsh Government to make immediate changes.