TB infected badgers could be killed

Badgers could be trapped in cages and killed if they test positive for TB under Welsh Government plans to reduce the disease in cattle.

Rural Affairs minister Lesley Griffiths says she won't take the course her Plaid Cymru predecessor Elin Jones wanted to follow - shooting all badgers in infected areas - although a similar policy has since been introduced in parts of England.

Instead the minister says she will "consider" learning from a pilot in Northern Ireland, where badgers were cage-trapped and infected animals humanely killed.

There will be a consultation on the plans, under which different parts of Wales would be categorised as low, intermediate and high TB areas, with different severity of measures, which will include controls on cattle movements. The consultation will also look at capping the compensation paid to farmers with infected cattle at £5,000 instead of the present £15,000. That idea's opposed by the farming unions, who have otherwise given the consultation a cautious welcome.