DORSET farmers have welcomed government proposals to allow badger culls in a bid to stem a rising tide of bovine tuberculosis.

But the county’s leading conservation charity has warned that a badger cull could backfire and spread TB rather than curb it.

Environment chiefs yesterday unveiled proposals to allow farmers to cull badgers under licence in TB hotspots, including Dorset.

Rupert Tory, who farms over 200 Holstein Friesian dairy cows at East Farm near Winterborne Whitechurch, welcomed the proposals.

“It’s a very good step forward. It has been such a waste of good cattle,” he said. “Stock has been taken out of dairy and beef herds for a problem that was eliminated before the 1990s and has come back.”

Some 14.3 per cent of herds in the South West operated under TB restrictions last year, compared with 6.3 per cent nationally.

James Cossins, who keeps 750 cattle at his farm in Tarrant Rawston, said TB had cost his farm between £40,000 and £50,000 in lost production over the last 18 months.

“We have been at a complete loss about what to do,” he said.

“Either we give up livestock or sort the source of the TB.

“One answer would be to give up livestock and just grow crops or move to sheep production,” he said.

He said badgers were the only possible source of the infection in his “closed” herd, where replacements for his dairy cows are bred on the farm.

“Last year, we lost two ‘in calf’ heifers about to go into the milking herd.

“To see a perfectly healthy animal shot on the farm because it’s too close to be transported is very distressing,” he said.

But Imogen Davenport, the director of conservation for the Dorset Wildlife Trust, said vaccination was the charity’s preferred option. “If it’s a case of where to put the money, let’s complete the vaccination trial and see where it takes us.

“We do feel that the evidence to support a cull of a natural species needs to be clear and well proven,” she said.

She said that culling would need to be considered extremely carefully to avoid spreading the disease.

“Unless you are given a sufficiently large and complete area – and we are talking about vast areas of countryside – it’s likely to disturb neighbouring badgers and spread the disease,” she added.

The consultation closes on December 8, 2010. Visit defra.gov.uk.

So what does the science say about Bovine TB and badgers? How have naturalists and wildlife charities reacted to the announcement? What does the farming community say? All this and more with our background bookmarks on delicious: click delicious.com/BournemouthEcho/badgers.