NORTH Cotswold farmer Jan Rowe has dismissed as "desperate deception" a claim from the National Federation of Badger Groups that cattle movements were largely to blame for the high incidence of bovine tuberculosis in the region.
Commenting on the claim which draw from the scientific journal Nature, the NFU's bovine TB spokesman Mr Rowe, who farms near Bourton, said: "There is nothing new in the Nature paper and it certainly does not vindicate the sensationalist claims subsequently attributed to it by the National Federation of Badger Groups nor does it address the acute problem of the high incidence of TB in core areas of disease."
He said: "If cattle movements were the key, you would have a much worse problem outside the South West in areas which traditionally import animals from the region."
NFU director for Gloucestershire and the South West, Anthony Gibson said: "The bovine TB problem must be dealt with in the round if we are ever to get on top of it."
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