THE local badger population could face mass extermination as the debate over TB in cattle enters its last crucial stage.

A total of 873 badgers have been trapped and shot in Bosbury as part of a Government trial into the effectiveness of slaughter.

East Herefordshire and North Gloucestershire are both national hotspots for the disease, which is financially crippling for farmers.

Herefordshire Nature Trust this week issued a call to its supporters to lodge a protest against plans to opt for culling as permanent policy.

The Government has set a deadline of March 10 for comments on three options.

They are:

n To grant licences to farm- ers to kill badgers in areas suffering outbreaks of Bovine TB

n To effect a general cull over a wide area in Bovine TB hotspots

n A cull targeted at areas with a history of Bovine TB or where there is a high incidence of cattle farming

The move follows a long trial of culling in 30 designated areas around the country.

In Bosbury, all the badgers that could be trapped have been killed and tested, with 46 per cent shown as carrying TB. In Dymock, 165 badgers have been caught and tested, but not culled, and 49 per cent have been found to be carriers.

Herefordshire Nature Trust says cattle-to-cattle transmission is the main spreader of the disease, not badgers. It is calling for restrictions on cattle movement and more efforts to be put into finding a vaccine.

It points to Government research, which says in areas where culls are carried out, badgers scatter, potentially carrying the disease further.

Chief executive Sarah Ayling said: "Bovine TB is a big problem but a mass eradication of one of our much-loved native animals is not the answer."