Badger culls may be spreading bovine TB, review warns

Badger culls may inadvertently spread bovine TB to wider areas, a government commissioned report has warned, as authors said farmers were more to blame for the disease than the wild animals.

In February, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, asked experts to review the handling of bovine TB over the last 25 years.

Although the report authors did find that badgers were spreading the disease to cattle and that culling could prevent some cases, they warned "cattle to cattle" transfer was a bigger problem and farmers should do more to keep animals off their land and limit the movement of livestock.

They said that in some cases, culls could do more harm than good by driving animals out of their natural habitats.

“There is evidence that culling badgers perturbs the animal’s social structure leading to increased risks of herd breakdowns in adjacent non-culled areas,” the report warned.

Defra figures show a total of 19,537 badgers were killed in 2017 as part of the Government’s badger culling programme, but it had only "modest" impacts on the spread of bovine TB.

The review said that moving away from killing badgers was "highly desirable" and recommended vaccination trials in half of the cull zones to find out if the disease could be controlled through inoculation.

At the launch of the report in central London, chair Sir Charles Godfray, Professor of Zoology at Oxford University, said: “No-one wants to cull badgers, and there is interest in controlling the disease by non-culling.

“The review panel are acutely aware of the burden this disease places on the welfare and well-being of farmers and their families, and the distress many people feel about badger culling.

“There is an unconscious feeling that everything can be blamed on the badgers. It’s wrong to blame wildlife and not make hard decisions in agriculture.”

There has been a six-fold increase in the number of cattle slaughtered because of bovine TB in the last 20 years, with 33,236 killed last year after testing positive and the review authors said there was more infection circulation in the national herd than previously realised.

Professor Michael Winter, a rural police specialist from the University of Exeter, said farmers could do more to stop badgers infecting their cattle.

“They can put up fences, ensuring badgers do not contaminate feeds, getting decent metal gates and barriers,” he said. “They can inject manure directly into the ground rather than spreading it.”

The report is now with ministers who will consider its recommendations before publishing a response, setting out the next steps for the strategy.

Farming Minister George Eustice said: “As a government we are committed to eradicating bovine TB and have always been clear that there is no single measure for tackling it.

“That’s why we have pursued a range of interventions, including cattle movement controls, vaccinations and controlled culling in certain areas.”

Responding to the report, wildlife charities called for widespread vaccination in badgers to improve their health, prevent the spread of TB in cattle and stop the "senseless killing" of one of Britain’s most loved animals.

Conservationists said that if vaccination by volunteers was implemented nationwide, it could cost as little as £600 per sq km compared to the £112,265 per sq km cost of selective culling.

Rosie Woodroffe, Senior Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), said: “Bovine TB is a major problem for farmers, which demands an effective solution.

“But that solution needs to be embedded in the social, ecological, and economic landscape of Britain’s countryside. All the evidence suggests that badger vaccination could potentially contribute to TB control as effectively as culling, but at a lower cost in terms of money, animal welfare, environmental impact, and public opinion.”

Chris Sherwood, Chief Executive of the RSPCA, added: ‘Farmers and animal charities want the same outcome - to end the scourge of bovine TB and the devastating impacts it has on farmers and animals.

“Our concern is that the focus on blaming badgers has stalled vital research and investment to find more effective solutions that would save the lives of cattle and move away from the current futile killing of badgers."

However the NFU said that culling badgers was still the best available option.