Letter: Government making effort to bring disease under control

When I was in school in 1944, the teacher said we were to do a study of the population in a short street in the town of 100 years ago. Two families had died and the cause of death was consumption (TB). Hospitals were built with beds out in the open air for people with TB.

After World War Two, the Government set up a scheme to test cattle for TB and remove reactors. The scheme started in the west and moved slowly to the east in Wales and England. Milk was sold from tested herds.

Pasteurisation was developed and became a legal requirement. It will kill any living bugs as will cooking.

In 1972 Dr John Gallagher published a paper on the spread of TB by badgers. He recommended that in TB blackspots the badgers be removed and any remaining vaccinated.

In about 1980, Peter Walker became Minister of Agriculture. He gassed badgers and reduced the number of farms closed with TB to less than 100.

Today, badgers are a protected animal and the population has exploded, and thousands of farms are banged up after cattle fail the TB test.

Southern Ireland is years ahead of the UK in TB control. It has removed badgers from blackspots, and if a farm is hit by TB, the cattle are shot and the badgers removed from the farms around the infected farm.

The number of infected farms is falling and the badgers there are 2lb heavier than they were years ago.

I have been to New Zealand where I have relatives who are dairy farming.

The possum was taken from Australia to new Zealand. It carries TB as do badgers. The government puts out contracts to clear possums, which are not paid until the job is done.

TB has spread in the UK as the badger population has gone up. I am pleased the Government has, at long last, started to make an effort to bring this nasty disease under control.

H Beamond, Lydbury North