FARMERS in Dorset are dismayed that the government looks set to decide against culling badgers to control tuberculosis in cattle.

The National Farmers' Union claims bovine tuberculosis TB has cost the industry millions and Dorset branch chairman Paul Harris said areas within the county have suffered.

He said: "The government has shown a complete lack of courage to tackle the problem.

"We've got a situation similar to when there is a hospital with MRSA.

"If you've got animals on a farm near an infected badger they are going to pick it up.

"I would not dream of culling badgers near me as we have not got disease.

"We're not looking for a total cull but a targeted removal of diseased badgers for their sake and the cattle."

An official decision on Monday is expected to announce the cull will not go ahead.

In February a committee of MPs said badger culling should be given the go-ahead to tackle TB in cattle in areas at high risk of the disease, which includes the South West.

The NFU claims 28,000 cattle were lost to TB last year and Mr Harris believes the figure will be closer to 40,000 this year.

But ministers have instead accepted the scientific arguments of the Independent Scientific Group on TB in Cattle.

Their analysis showed it was not clear cut that sustained culling over a large area for five or six years might have some effect.

The chief executive of Dorset Wildlife Trust, Simon Cripps, said: "Scientific advice says culling is not the way to get the right result as it is neither efficient, effective or economic.

"The DWT has a lot of sympathy for cattle farmers and we don't dispute this is an important issue as we have our own cattle.

"Vaccine development, improved husbandry and keeping badgers away from feed will be more successful long term."

Simon Banfield, a dairy farmer in Puddletown, has had TB on his farm and said most of Dorset's farmers have had a problem in the last five years.

He said: "We simply have to get on top of it otherwise prices to the customer will go up.

"I love badgers but we are seeing overcrowding of sets which are the conditions in which the disease spreads.

"We've all got to sit down together and work it out because we can't allow the situation to deteriorate."

"We keep hearing that a vaccine is 10 years away."