VET and farmer Keith Powell is on a £20,000 mission to help eradicate bovine TB in the Abergavenny area.

Keith who has a smallholding at Llanbedr and runs Barefoot Vets is spearheading a badger vaccination programme around the northern foothills of Sugar Loaf.

He has been given a patch of 10 sq kms to inoculate the carriers of the disease which can wreak havoc with herds.

It was Keith’s own tragedy of losing half his herd of 20 cattle to TB which prompted him to take the initiative in July.

Since then he has given the needle to 60 badgers caught in cage traps around Llanbedr.

The vaccination programme is in stark contrast to the culling sorties adopted elsewhere in the UK.

Keith says he is persuaded that vaccinations are the best answer for dealing with the problem which has plagued farmers for years.

Funding for the local operation has come from the Welsh Government, who are paying half the costs, and the sustainability fund of the Brecon Beacons national park authority which is stumping up a third. The remainder is being paid for by farmers.

‘It’s one of the biggest private initiatives in Wales,” said Keith.

He added, “I suffered from the effects of what bovine TB can do. I thought I would take up the challenge of trying to sort it out.”

And he added, “If we get rid of the infection in badgers the cattle won’t get TB.”

He accepted that there was no direct proof that such measures worked - which was why the vaccination was part of a five-year project to assess the results.

This opening year’s programme has another month to run, by which time some 80 badgers would have received a jab - or 90 per cent of the estimated numbers in the immediate area.

He feels it is a high enough percentage to help deal with the problems decisively.

So far, seven sq kms have been covered by the vaccination hit squad which will repeat the exercise next year and up till 2020.

“It’s a very straightforward programme which involves 34 holdings,” said Keith.

Anyone wanting to get involved in the local project can contact Keith on 07983 503810 or [email protected]

Abergavenny MP David Davies wished Keith all the very best with his efforts.

He accepted there was a ‘big debate’ over the merits of vaccination against culling - and would be interested to see how each of them fared.