STOP the badger slaughter - that was the verdict of readers who voted in our phone poll this week.

Sixty-seven per cent of readers voted against the cull, which restarted this month in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Thirty-three per cent voted to continue the badger cull, in order to stop the spread of TB to cattle.

Figures produced earlier this month reveal the two counties are the third worst affected area in the UK, with only Devon and Cornwall suffering more cases of bovine TB in 2002.

The Government's investigation, which is based on the 1997 Krebs Report, aims to discover any links between badgers carrying TB and cattle becoming infected.

The experiment, based in Bosbury, near Ledbury, includes areas where badgers are eradicated, partly culled and left alone, examining the different effects on bovine TB in each.

"Farms struck by the disease are in real trouble and if these experiments have to be done to stop this in the future I support it," said Jon Tainton, a Hallow-based farmer, whose herd has been badly affected by bovine TB.

On average, the disease costs each farm that it strikes around £36,000.

Yet critics of the Defra scheme have responded with outrage at the decision to cull badgers in the two counties, with activists attempting to free any caged by Defra.

"Bovine TB is spreading around the country, but not because of badgers," said Clare Whyte, a Hereford-based activist.

"In many cases, restrictions on moving cattle since foot-and-mouth have been ignored, and that is why there has been an increase."

The Government has refused to announce any preliminary results of the investigation for fear of compromising future tests.