A COUNTY MP has blamed Government incompetence for the sharp rise in the levels of bovine tuberculosis in the region.

Worcestershire and Herefordshire had 186 cases of the disease in 1998. Last year, this figure rose to 328.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said the figures showed that local farmers were paying an unacceptable price.

"The delays in the trials that are examining the link between badgers and bovine TB have been caused by a tragic mixture of incompetence and delay by the Government and the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in 2001," he said.

"The Government must come up with a package to help affected farmers, to promote good farming practice to minimise the risk of more farms going down and to control the spread of the disease.

"This is an animal health catastrophe and the Government's failure to act is a public policy scandal."

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs blamed last year's high figures on reduced testing for the disease because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

"This meant that some cases went undetected, and there was therefore an increase in the number of cases detected in 2002," a spokesman said.

Earlier this week, Evening News readers voted in favour of stopping the badger cull that started this month in the two counties.