A WELLAND farmer has criticised the time taken to deal with an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis.

Archie Smith-Maxwell, of Welland Lodge Farm, re-cently learned that two of his Aberdeen Angus cattle had contracted the disease.

He is now keeping them in isolation before they are destroyed but is frustrated at the time taken by the Department of the Environ-ment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to visit the farm, value the animals and arrange slaughter.

Mr Smith-Maxwell said he believed around 20 farms in the county had been affected by the outbreak and that farmers were being kept waiting for up to six weeks before the infected animals were slaughtered.

They cannot buy or sell any stock during this time and if the animals are not dealt with quickly, farms could face a re-test where the farm is shut down once again.

He said: "I honestly be-lieve it looks likely that Defra aren't capable of dealing with it. You would have thought that with foot and mouth, Defra would have measures in place to deal with every situation but they treat it as though farm animals don't matter anymore."

He believes badgers are responsible for bringing the disease onto the farm, but is not permitted to kill them himself. He said Defra did not advocate culling the animals.

He said: "I'm not an anti-badger man but I know this is where the infection is from. They should be culled. Defra's attitude is that farming does not matter and badgers do. People don't seem to mind what's happening to farming, as long as wildlife can carry on."

Defra was unable to confirm the number of farms affected in Worcestershire.

A spokesman said the target for dealing with cases was ten working days from the date of the animal being proven to have TB.

He said a number of factors had contributed to the delay, the main one being agreement on compensation. Defra would be seeking ways to speed up the process, he added.