Bovine TB — badgers and buyers beware

I RECEIVED a phone call from a friend last week.

“Turn on Radio Wan. They’re on about TB in cattle.”

I duly turned the dial on my radio, to find Aonghus McAnally and his panel in conversation with a Con Flynn from the Irish Wildlife Trust, and John Barron, the chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association’s (ICSA) rural development committee. Their conversation was indeed about TB in cattle, but more specifically about the Department of Agriculture’s policy of culling badgers in TB hot-spots. I listened with great interest.