Badger cull to reduce TB under fire
Monday, 18 Jun 2007 11:14
Some have argued that badger culls are the main way to reducing cattle TB
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Culling badgers will not make a "meaningful contribution" to controlling cattle tuberculosis (TB) in the UK, an influential report has concluded.
Bovine TB is a serious disease of cattle which has become a major problem for British farmers. Badgers have been implicated in spreading the disease and between 1973 and 1998 cattle-based TB controls were supplemented by various forms of badger culling.
A new report published today by the government's Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on bovine TB warns that this culling has not had a positive effect on reducing the spread of disease and some policies "are likely to make matters worse rather than better".
Conducted by leading British scientists, the report concludes that "the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone".
ISG chairman Professor John Bourne said that the government will have difficulty in implementing control strategies unless it is given "full industry cooperation".
"It is unfortunate that agricultural and veterinary leaders continue to believe, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, that the main approach to cattle TB control must involve some form of badger population control," he writes in the report.
"It is our hope that Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] will embrace new scientific findings, and communicate these to stakeholders in ways that encourage acceptance and participation."
The Badger Trust said that it welcomed today's report, arguing that culling badgers "is like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut, doing far more harm than good".
Spokesperson Trevor Lawson added: "A less brutish approach to the small role played by badgers, such as electric fencing around farm buildings, might well yield greater benefits at a fraction of the cost.
"Controlling TB in cattle will reduce TB in badgers, further reducing the risk to cattle. These are constructive, win-win solutions that are good for farming, for wildlife and for tax payers. The challenge now is for farmers and vets to see the sense of implementing them."
In response to the report, the National Farmers' Union (NFU) has vowed to keep the pressure on the government to include badger culling as part of its strategy to tackle TB.
NFU president Peter Kendall said that he would be seeking urgent meetings with Defra ministers and officials about the issue.
"I simply do not accept that the industry cannot devise a culling strategy that will reduce the reservoir of TB in badgers," he said.
"Better testing and tighter controls on cattle movements will be worthless unless something is done to stop the relentless cycle of re-infection of cattle in the TB hotspot areas by disease spreading from badgers.
"The alternative to a badger cull, as the report acknowledges, is the appalling prospect of disease continuing to spread through the countryside for an indefinite period stretching far into the future. That is not acceptable to me, and it will not be acceptable to my members in TB hotspot areas," Mr Kendall added.
