The managing director of a local organic milk company whose herd of Holstein Friesians is being slaughtered in the wake of a bovine TB outbreak has hit out at the Welsh Assembly Government over the issue and is to invite badger and other groups to discuss wildlife in the area.

Laurence Harris, director of the Trioni company at Ffosyficer Farm, Abercych, which supplies the Daioni range, said that the Assembly changed their minds on the groups of cattle to be slaughtered and then changed it back again to the original recommendation by Animal Health in Carmarthen.

The remainder of the cattle are to be blood tested (gamma interferon) this week and it is envisaged that the total number culled will be in the region of 700.

"The action of the Welsh Assembly caused us huge problems in sorting the cattle out again, sorting all the correspondence, paperwork etc, that was in addition to the whole trauma of losing the cattle in the first place. It is totally unacceptable," he said.

On the invitation to animal rights groups Mr. Harris said: "We intend to invite all bodies interested in the health and welfare of the countryside to visit Ffosyficer to discuss the health status of our surrounding wildlife.

"Their silence over the past week or so has been deafening," he said.