Limited badger cull 'could make a contribution towards the reduction of cattle TB'

Summary

Cattle TB is one of the most serious animal health problems in Great Britain today, with the number of infected cattle doubling every four and a half years and nearly 20,000 being slaughtered in 2006. The cost of the disease to the taxpayer (£80-100 million a year) and to the farming industry is unsustainable. The introduction of a new system of valuations for slaughtered cattle has proved inequitable in many cases.

'Badgers and Cattle TB: The Final Report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB' (HC 130-I) examines the possibility of implementing a badger culling scheme in response to the Report by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG).

The final report from the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) concluded that badger culling could not meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain. This conclusion was contradicted by Sir David King, the then Government Chief Scientific Adviser, though he had not discussed findings with the ISG.

The Committee's conclusions and recommendations include:

The Government should adopt a strategy that includes: more frequent cattle testing; the evaluation of post-movement cattle testing; and the deployment of badger and cattle vaccines when they become available in the future.
Under certain well-defined circumstances it is possible that badger culling could make a contribution towards the reduction in incidence of cattle TB in hot-spot areas.
Crucial gaps in the knowledge about cattle TB and the way it spreads remain and more research is needed.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) needs more funding from the Treasury to pay for the Committee recommendations.

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Law-Making Explained

This is a House of Commons Paper (HC 130-I 2007-08): it is a Report from the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

Find out more about House of Commons Papers.

How does it affect me?

If you work with cattle or have an interest in animal welfare issues, this may be of interest to you.

John Rolls, Director of Animal Welfare Promotion at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), has said that 'any attempt at badger-culling flies in the face of sound scientific judgement. There is overwhelming public opposition to a mass eradication of badgers by farmers. Surely even to contemplate such a move is political madness?'

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn is expected to outline the Government's policy on controlling TB in cattle shortly and has said that any decision taken will be based on 'what the science tells us, what impact the proposed measures would have on the disease, how practical is the solution and what is its public acceptability.'