6. Will the First Minister make a statement on Bovine TB levels in Wales? OAQ(5)0151(FM)

Yes. We have seen some real progress over the last few years. We are seeing a downward trend in new TB incidents. The latest statistics show that, in the last 12 months, there were 740 new herd incidents reported in Wales, compared with 884 in the previous 12 months. That’s a decrease of 16 per cent.

Thank you, First Minister. However, the number of cattle slaughtered as a result of contracting bovine TB has actually seen a sharp increase of 43 per cent over the past 12 months, bringing much misery and financial hardship to our farmers. I understand that the Welsh Government abandoned its own vaccine programme in December, given the levels of human TB and the shortage of vaccine now available. The FUW has stressed the difference in approach and understanding between your Government and policies implemented in England, and without a proactive approach to manage the source of infection in cattle and wildlife, international trade negotiations for Wales could be put at significant risk. Given what can only be described now as a crisis in farming, as regards bovine TB, what immediate action are you taking to resolve this? Will you, as First Minister, make a statement in this Chamber to the Assembly Members, and also to our very worried farmers out there in Wales?

It would be for the Minister to make that statement, and she will be keeping the Assembly informed of that. But, as I said, the number of breakdowns has gone down. Testing is up. We know that there are no difficulties in terms of international trade, as far as bovine TB is concerned. In fact, the eradication programme, which is jointly owned by England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has received £31 million of European money. There we are; let’s see if that continues in the future. So, there’s no difficulty with the approach that we have taken. No country, nor indeed the European Union, has ever said that they have difficulty with the approach taken to reducing TB incidence in Wales.

May I ask, as the Government is reviewing its strategy at present, what lessons you have learned from other countries, particularly the experiences in England where they’ve adopted a different approach, and perhaps in the Republic of Ireland too?

One of the things that I know about England, as I remember, during the Krebs tests, was that things worsened because of the fact that they were culling the badgers from the centre outwards. Of course, with perturbation, the disease was spreading because of that. I know that many people think that there’s an easy solution to TB and that if you cull, eradicate or get rid of the badgers, then you’d eradicate TB. It's more complicated than that. I recall sitting on the committe and hearing the evidence, which demonstrated that it’s much more complicated and that there is not one answer. However, having said that, we’ve seen a reduction, which is to be welcomed, in the number of stock that are being tested positive with TB. That’s something that we wish to see continuing.