Animal Welfare: Infectious Diseases

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lady Byford on raising this issue. It is a matter of importance and concern to everyone who is interested in the livestock industry. In declaring my interest as a lifelong livestock farmer, I recognise the cost to the industry caused by the appalling error at Pirbright in relation to the foot and mouth outbreak. We now have to deal with bluetongue and avian flu while recognising the other infectious diseases that are concerning the whole of the livestock industry. I shall concentrate my few remarks on TB. I am old enough to remember the eradication scheme of the 1940s and 1950s. It was a huge success because of co-operation between the farmers, the vets and the Ministry. TB was virtually eliminated throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. We could boast that we had clean herds and TB-free milk for consumers. We followed it up by eradicating brucellosis through a compulsory vaccination scheme. Both schemes were sound as investments and sound in effect. Both were successful. Now, 50 or 60 years later, we should be ashamed to admit that more than 6,500 farms are under restriction. As my noble friend Lady Byford said, last year 2,800 cattle were slaughtered, at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £90 million. The cost to the farmer is often his livelihood and a herd of stock built up over a lifetime of breeding those animals. Does the Minister accept that the total number of animals affected increased by 18 per cent between 2006 and 2007? And yet in such circumstances we have to wait for the conclusions and recommendations of a political committee and for Ministers to take account, as the Minister in another place said, of the ““facets”” of the disease. With such problems—which the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, as a scientist, highlighted and understands so well—surely there is a moral obligation to act. Or do we want another 18 per cent increase in the number of cattle slaughtered next year? Defra’s strategic goal must be to ensure an annual decrease in the impact of the disease. The issue of cattle movements has an important part to play, but the disease will never be controlled without tackling its reservoirs. I refer to the badger population and to other vermin, such as rats, which help the disease to spread. There appears to be a problem with testing. A case was brought to me recently where reactors were not removed from the farm for six weeks, and in one case eight weeks, when of course they should have been removed within seven days. There are many cases of hardship, too many to mention, involving farmers who cannot sell their stock because of the restrictions. Perhaps I may quote two such examples, or three if I have time. They occurred in Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Carmarthenshire. The first case involves a young couple farming 189 acres in Herefordshire. Due to the TB restrictions they are carrying the cost of 450 head of cattle, 130 of which should have been sold. The wife is under great pressure. They have a four year-old child, and last month the wife produced a baby daughter. She went into hospital on the Friday and came out with 29 stitches the following Monday so that she could resume work on the farm. They have been pushed heavily into debt. She fields the telephone calls from suppliers demanding payment; npower and BT are pressing them very hard. The supply of animal feedstuffs is a great concern. ARC-Addington, the charitable fund, has sent eight articulated lorry loads of silage and straw, with more help being given this week. Such help can last for only a very short time in such difficult circumstances. The second case also involves the Addington fund. In 2002 it approved the provision of housing for an elderly couple who are farming in Staffordshire. TB was the main obstacle to their exiting the farm. Six years later, the farm is still under TB restrictions. The husband is now aged 77 and his wife is 75. They are still farming. As tenant farmers their assets are tied up in their stock, but they need to be TB-free to sell up and realise its full potential. There is a similar case in Carmarthen, where a family has been unable to sell its stock since 2002. Apart from the appalling effect that that has had on their family life, their cash flow is moving in the wrong direction. Those are the human problems that exist with this disease. Your Lordships should know what is actually happening on the livestock farms in today’s difficult circumstances.