BADGER culls in Gloucester have succeeded in reducing tuberculosis in cattle, the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has said.
Pilot tests to see if the scheme would work have been underway for two years to see if it could be rolled out across the country.
President Meurig Raymond told the NFU's annual conference in Birmingham that TB had been reduced in the pilot areas.
Meanwhile Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said a Tory-led government would roll out badger culling to more TB-infected areas.
Labour has said they will end badger culling if they win the general election.
Badger culling has enraged animal rights groups who say it is needlessly cruel.
A spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Prvention of Cruelty to Animals, said: As culling can't be selective many perfectly healthy badgers will be slaughtered as ‘collateral damage’. In fact, as many as six out of seven badgers killed could be TB free.”
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