FARMERS from across Gloucestershire are calling for badger-culling trials to be speeded up to stop the spread of bovine TB.

To date cattle farmers in the north Cotswolds have not suffered as much as many others in the county from the disease, but they fear that the disease is spreading. If the disease is found all the infected cattle have to be slaughtered and the farmer faces a lengthy wait before selling any others at market.

Now a secret site in the north of the county has been chosen as part of the Government's new round of trials to determine whether badgers, as many farmers believe, are the main means of passing on the disease.

The trial zone will be split into three: In one area no badgers will be killed, in a second only those where cattle have TB and in the third badgers will be culled.

Farmers affected by the trials were able to meet with senior NFU and Ministry of Agriculture officials at a special meeting in Gloucester last week. Speaking afterwards, county NFU chairman Peter Davidson-Smith, who comes from Notgrove, said: "The greatest concern was that the results aren't out until 2004, so nothing will happen until then. How much will it have spread by then and how bad will the situation be?"

He added: "It is a serious problem in our area and I know some people have had problems. It is spreading rapidly."

He said farmers were convinced that badgers were a major factor in the spread of the disease, but this is disputed by the Gloucestershire Badger Group, whose chairman, Tony Dean, said: "A lot of farmers think the badger is the be-all and end-all, but there is no scientific proof. I'm certain that if you cut the badger out of the equation completely then we would still have TB in cattle in this country."

He said other animals, such as deer and hedgehogs, also carried TB and said the best way to control its spread was for animals to be tested before being allowed to move from one farm to another. "Farmers don't want that because it is extra expense," he said.

Research is continuing into a vaccine against the disease, but Mr Davidson-Smith said: "That is something like 10 or 15 years away. It may be something that the next generation can look forward to."

He also questioned whether the Government would have the political nerve to support a badger-culling programme if the trials showed the badger was at fault.

The badger group believes that if past governments had been willing to invest the funds, a vaccine would already be available.