BADGER campaigners have hit back at claims that the animals are to blame for the spread of tuberculosis to cattle.

Last week, farmers said they would back any Government initiative to cull badgers in the North, after Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett gave a speech to the National Farmers' Union.

But Valerie Whitby, vice-chairwoman of Durham County Badger Group, said yesterday there was no suggestion that the Government was planning a cull of badgers outside specific trial areas.

"Mrs Beckett was talking to farmers about proposals to do with farming and wildlife, but did not mention culling," she said. "Badgers are getting the blame but it has never been academically proven that they spread TB to cattle."

Cases of bovine TB have been confined to the South and West, but farmers fear it could spread to the North-East. Government proposals for a short-term TB control strategy announced last Thursday did not include badger culling.

* In a story on badger culling, which appeared in The Northern Echo on February 20, we stated that David Maughan farmed at Bolam, Northumberland. It should have read Bolam, County Durham.