FARMERS last night backed a badger cull in a bid to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

The Government indicated that it was considering culls outside specific trial areas as fears grow over the spread of the disease.

Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett told the annual conference of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) that the Government would consider all options.

Cases of bovine TB, which is carried by badgers and can lead to the destruction of herds, have been confined to the South and West, where trials of methods to halt its spread, including culling, have been taking place.

But farmers fear it may spread to the North, which has only suffered a handful of cases.

Rob Simpson, NFU North-East spokesman, said: "It is moving rapidly and some farmers have described it as worse than foot-and-mouth disease.

"It has not been a huge problem in the North-East, but there have been some farms who have had problems with TB who have been shut down for six months or more."

Beef farmer David Maughan, who farms at Bolam, Northumberland, said: "I personally feel quite strongly that the Government has to grasp the nettle where TB is shown to be indigenous in the population."

Ken Wood, chairman of the Stokesley and District Badger Protection Society, said there would be an outcry if badgers were culled without proof of their role in the spread of the disease.