An animal rights group says it will publish the names of three farms involved in the government’s badger cull in Wales, provoking anger from farming unions.

Stop the Welsh Cull said it is identifying the names and locations of the three Welsh farms involved in the targeted cull following a Freedom of Information request to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

In a Facebook post it said: “We are asking people to monitor activity at these farms, looking for unusual activity that could indicate killing has restarted and let us know. Also report lapses in biosecurity measures the farms involved are obliged to carry out.”

The Farmers’ Unions of Wales (FUW) described it as a “massive security breach’’ which threatens the safety of farmers and their neighbours.

NFU Cymru president John Davies said the union was “extremely concerned and disappointed’’ that this information had come into the public domain.

He said the union’s primary concern was for the well-being of farmers affected by the breach.

“The Welsh Government must now carry out a full investigation into how this breach of data has occurred. There is no doubt this breach will affect farmers’ confidence in Welsh Government’s approach to tackling this horrendous disease,’’ said Mr Davies.

The localised culling of badgers in Wales last year is part of Welsh Government efforts to tackle the reservoir of TB in wildlife, a disease which led to the slaughter of more than 40,000 cattle in the UK over the past 12 months.

The APHA report showed 37 badgers were trapped, but only five tested positive for TB in sett-side tests. But none of these badgers, which were culled, later tested positive for the disease in post-mortem examinations.

NFU Cymru described the results as “very disappointing”, adding that they did not reflect previous government badger roadkill surveys in Wales which showed one in five badgers in some areas have TB.

In addition to the badger trap and test strategy, the chronic breakdown farms are subject to other management measures, such as cattle movement restrictions, additional testing requirements and increased testing sensitivity and improved biosecurity standards.

AHPA’s report concludes that it may take years for systems to be developed to determine which management systems, if any, affect the disease status of cattle herds.