"TB in a local badger may increase the risk..."

... of your herd contracting the disease".

Farmers in Wales are starting to receive letters from the State Veterinary Service, in response to postmortems carried out on the dead badgers submitted under this spring's survey.

We covered the somewhat premature end to this in our post:
http://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2006/05/update-on-wales.html .. but results now trickling out, generate the following letter:

"A dead badger found within 3km of your farm, and tested for TB as part of an on-going (err - we understood it had closed - ed) badger road traffic accident survey in your area. This animal tested positive for TB. Confirmation of TB in a local badger ( how do SVS know it was 'local'? or how far it travelled? 3 miles/km? 6? 10? - sorry, we digress) may increase the risk of your herd contracting the disease".

The letter then asks that farmers concerned test their cattle.

FUW representative Evan Thomas, said that the Union had emphasised the importance of testing cattle in areas where badgers had been found with TB, and that he was glad the Welsh Assembly was undertaking these measures. He pointed out that it gave SVS an opportunity to 'nip TB in the bud' early, but criticised the decision to end the survey (of dead badgers) early as 'premature'. "It is important to monitor the disease in badgers" he said.

And? His point is? OK, you've got a dead badger. One dead badger, and you've tested local farms in a 3 km. radius of it's demise. And if they test positive? Watchyagonna do then?
The same as the rest of England I suppose: keep testing and killing shed loads of cattle, ignoring the message they're sending you. That'd be about right.