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| Badger cull pilot area revealed | Badger cull pilot area revealed |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| A pilot badger cull will take place in an area of west Wales to try to halt tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, the Welsh Assembly Government has announced. | |
| Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said it was needed to eradicate the disease in cattle, which has cost £23m in compensation this financial year alone. | Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said it was needed to eradicate the disease in cattle, which has cost £23m in compensation this financial year alone. |
| She said there would be an "intensive action area" covering around 200 square kilometres in north Pembrokeshire. | She said there would be an "intensive action area" covering around 200 square kilometres in north Pembrokeshire. |
| It is expected badgers will be culled by cage trapping and then shooting. | It is expected badgers will be culled by cage trapping and then shooting. |
| There have been attempts over many years to control this disease and they have failed Elin Jones, Rural Affairs Minister | |
| But she told AMs there would be further discussions with police about the methods to be used. | |
| No date for the start of the proposed cull was announced, but Ms Jones said moves to put the legislation into place to allow it to happen would begin next month. | |
| The minister authorised the scheme last April and said a pilot scheme would take place in a TB hotspot to learn lessons before being rolled out across Wales. | |
| Outlining plans for the cull on Tuesday, she said there had been "attempts over many years to control this disease and they have failed". | |
| "Each member state is, however, obliged under an EU directive to develop an eradication programme in order to 'accelerate, intensify or carry through' the eradication of the disease," Ms Jones said. | |
| "All of this underlines the necessity of our commitment to pursue TB eradication urgently," she added. | |
| Last year, more than 12,000 cattle were slaughtered due to TB - 52% more than in the previous year. | |
| 'Havoc' | |
| Wales' chief vet Christianne Glossop said the situation was "unacceptable and unsustainable". | |
| "If you talk to farmers, you see a real level of frustration and desperation in their minds at the moment because of the problem," she said | |
| Dr Glossop said west Wales had the highest incidence of bovine TB in Britain and 60% of cattle being slaughtered because of the disease were in north Pembrokeshire. | |
| She said the cull, which will take place over five years, was just one of a number of measures that would be applied in the targeted area of north Pembrokeshire. | |
| Conservative Preseli Pembrokeshire AM Paul Davies said: "I very much welcome the proposals in the statement and I very much hope these plans will see the end of TB in my area - a disease that has wreaked havoc in the countryside of Wales." | |
| Farming unions welcomed the announcement but Labour Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths appealed to the minister to abandon the plans. | |
| Ms Griffiths argued the science being used to justify the cull was "at best selective and at worst flawed". |