Badgers and Bovine TB

The badger is one of Britain's best loved animals and part of our national heritage. However, badgers to carry bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and have been implicated in the spread of the disease to cattle.

Badgers A large scale cull of badgers in areas where bTB is prevalent has been under discussion for many years. A public consultation on proposals to control bovine tuberculosis (bTB) took place in early 2006.

The Trust works closely with many farmers because they play a crucial role in conserving wildlife and managing the countryside. We have a great deal of sympathy for farmers whose stocks are affected by bovine TB. It is a serious problem but a mass eradication of badgers is not the answer.

Scientists have spent the last seven years investigating whether killing badgers will halt this serious disease in cattle and the answer they are getting is that it could make the problem worse. The Government's own research tells them that cattle-to-cattle transmission is the biggest reason for the spread of bovine TB and that culling badgers around affected farms doesn't reduce the overall incidence of the disease. On the contrary, by disrupting badgers, a cull would lead to greatly increased movements in badger populations which could exacerbate the problem.

The Trust believes that the Government should focus on more sensible, sustainable methods of tackling this problem, such as controls on cattle movements, research into the wildlife reservoir of the disease and the development of a bovine TB vaccine.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee report on badgers and cattle TB – The Wildlife Trusts’ response.

27 February 2008.

Commenting on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee report on badgers and cattle TB (bTB), Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive for The Wildlife Trusts, said: "This report rightly highlights the need for tighter controls on cattle testing and biosecurity as the way to combat this disease. Far from giving a green light to badger culling, the Committee reinforces the view that badger culling could, in theory, be effective if certain conditions were met. However, we know these conditions are impossible to meet in practice."

The Wildlife Trusts accept bTB in cattle is a significant problem for farming in the UK and that urgent action is required to combat the disease. The Trusts particularly recognise the important role the livestock industry can play in the environmentally-sensitive management of the countryside and the serious disruption and anxiety caused to farmers experiencing a herd breakdown.

The Wildlife Trusts are pleased the EFRA committee agrees the following measures must be rigorously enforced to control bTB:

More frequent cattle testing, with more frequent and targeted combined use of the tuberculin skin test and the gamma interferon test
The evaluation of post-movement cattle testing
Greater communication with farmers on the benefits of bio-security measures
The deployment of badger and cattle vaccines, when they become available
Continued work on the epidemiology of the disease.

However, The Wildlife Trusts believe that the following conditions the report suggests for badger-culling to be effective are impractical:

Culling would need to be: over large areas (at least 265sq km, nearly the size of the Isle of Wight) – our land ownership is so fragmented that this would be impossible
For sustained periods of time (at least four years) – it would be impossible to prevent badgers moving into culled areas for this period of time
Be co-ordinated – co-ordinating culling amongst so many landowners, particularly when some would not support a cull, would be impractical
Be carried out competently and efficiently – having so many different landowners and managers carrying our culling means it would be impossible to ensure minimum standards of competence or efficiency
Be undertaken where there are natural boundaries to dispersal – badgers are known to cross man-made natural boundaries such as major roads and waterways

The Independent Scientific Group, set up by Government to look at this issue, concluded that, because they could see no situation where the conditions could be met, culling provides ‘no meaningful contribution’ and is ‘not cost effective’ as a control measure for combating bovine tuberculosis. Stephanie Hilborne continued: "Now is the time to throw all our weight behind cattle control measures to deal with this disease and not be side-tracked by further discussions of badger culling."
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Can we combat this disease by cattle control measures alone?

Bovine TB levels in Northern Ireland have fallen by almost 40% since 2002 from a herd incidence of 9.93% to 6.23% in 2006. Statistics suggest that the disease is continuing on a downward trend. This has been achieved through strict enforcement of cattle based control measures and no culling of badgers.