A DISTRAUGHT Worcestershire farmer says she fears for her future after tests for bovine tuberculosis in her cattle proved positive - a year after she lost all her previous livestock to foot-and-mouth.

Julia Evans' farm in Whitbourne has been dealt this second blow after four of her cattle were found to be reactors as a result of tests conducted last month.

But the 43-year-old, who said she had concerns about the validity of the tests, added she was anxious for the wellbeing of her suckler cows and calves

"This is a disaster for us," she said.

"We had picked ourselves up after the foot-and-mouth crisis last year and re-stocked with cattle and sheep, and now we are faced with this.

Destroyed

"Again we cannot move cattle on or off the farm and the reactor cattle face being destroyed even though the tests don't actually show they definitely have the disease.

"We had to have all our stock destroyed last year which was absolutely heart breaking, and we are facing some of our stock being culled again.

"We farm in a humanitarian way and having to kill more animals is very upsetting."

The mother-of-four, who helped run her Longlands Farm for 20 years before taking it over from her husband, Bill, so that he could return to forestry, has 350 pedigree Lleyn sheep as well as the rare beef short horn cattle.

She feels DEFRA should be doing more to ensure the disease is not spread by badgers, which then negates the killing of infected cattle.

"There is some statistical evidence to show there could be a link between badgers and the disease, although not scientific," she added.

"DEFRA should be looking at establishing the link and taking action on their population if there is a link."

Richard Grenville, DEFRA veterinary officer, said he could not comment on the scale of the problem in Whitbourne but said the tuberculosis test was reliable.

"We have legal powers to do this test and it's very good at spotting the disease in a herd," he said.

"No scientific test is 100 per cent accurate and there are grey areas, but once they become reactors we have the powers to require that they are slaughtered."

He said DEFRA was unable to take action against badgers until the end of the Krebs Trial, an experiment to establish whether the animals spread the disease.