A local organic milk company whose customers include the Welsh Rugby Union and Chelsea Football Club is this week having its pedigree herd slaughtered because of a bovine tuberculosis outbreak.

Hundreds of Holstein Friesians in a herd of more than a thousand at Ffosyficer Farm, Abercych, that provide milk for the Trioni company which has customers worldwide, have already been put down after the disease was discovered recently.

The outbreak, which is confined to one north Pembrokeshire farm, has prompted fresh calls for a badger cull as a means of controlling bovine TB.

Confirming the TB outbreak in all classes of cattle at Ffosyficer, farmer Laurence Harris, who is managing director of Trioni Ltd, which supplies products for the Daioni range, said the full extent of the cull would be known after a meeting this week with the Animal Health department and the Welsh Assembly Government.

Stressing that products supplied by Daioni would not be affected in any way Mr. Harris said "All milk, organic or otherwise, is subjected to pasteurisation or ultra heat treatment in small or large processing units, and is of no risk of the public."

After a lengthy public consultation involving more than 47,000 responses, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs Hilary Benn told Parliament last summer that the Government would not issue licences for farmers to cull badgers.

She also said that there would in the future be the possibility of revisiting the policy under exceptional circumstances or if new scientific evidence became available.

Asked about a badger cull Mr. Harris said: "It does seem that the current strategy of containment and eradication of bTB in cattle is not working and perhaps it is time to reassess the situation.

"This is a sad and difficult time for us and all our staff at Ffosyficer and we would like to thank our friends, neighbours and customers for their support and understanding," he said. Farmers claim that badgers transfer TB to cattle, but animal rights campaigners say there is no proof that this is the case.

Gordon Lumby, secretary of Dyfed Badger Conservation, said: "All cattle in Wales are being tested for TB but the old fashioned skin test is being used, which is not accurate.

"The gamma inter feron system is far more accurate, but costs a lot more. What we say is that before culling let’s try other methods to see if they work," he said.