Badger Bother
To cull or not to cull?
Badgers are blamed for spreading the bovine
tuberculosis (bTB) disease to dairy cows
. . . by some people
Why cull badgers?
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB)
What
• Infectious is
fatal bovine
disease
• Caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium
tuberculosis
(bTB)?
Bovis
• Affects mammals, including cows, badgers,
rats, foxes, deer and people
• The disease is fatal to cows
Why is bTB a
problem?
• The milk from infected cows can’t be sold
• Cows with the disease have to be killed
because people can catch the disease if
they drink the milk
How is bTB
spread?
Cows can catch it from other
cows as well as from wildlife
such as badgers
Badgers can catch it from
other badgers as well as from
cows
Distribution of badgers and bovine TB in the UK
Badgers
Cases of cattle TB
2006 – 2010
Badger cull areas
Distribution of
badgers and
TB in the UK
West
Gloucestershire
West
Somerset
bTB history
Tuberculin testing
suspended due to
Foot & Mouth
disease (FMD)
fuelling a dramatic
rise in bovine TB
2001 - 2002
Randomised Badger
Culling Trial (RBCT)
1998 - 2007
1960 All cattle in the
UK tested & reactors
removed
1987 Relaxation
of cattle testing,
slaughter and
movement
controls
Culling using
gassing
1975 - 1981
2013 Pilot culls in
Somerset and
Gloucestershire
Pilot cull supported by:
•DEFRA (government department
for farming and rural affairs)
•NFU (National Farmers’ Union)
•To run over four years
•Selected areas in Gloucestershire
and Somerset
•Free-running badgers to be shot
at night by farmers using rifles
•70% of badger population to be killed
•Anticipated 16% fall in TB after 4 years
•To go nationwide if ‘successful’
Pilot cull opposed by:
•Most leading scientists
(including Professor Krebs who organised
the biggest scientific study into the issue)
•Most wildlife societies
and animal protection groups
•Most MPs (voted 147 to 28 against in Oct 2012)
They say:
•Shooting badgers is cruel
•It won’t work
•It will cost too much
Protesters at Badger Camp in
Gloucestershire
Shooting a fleeing badger
humanely is not easy
. . . at night it’s even more difficult
The Krebs Trial
Randomised badger culling trial
• Key scientific study into whether
badgers reduces bovine TB
culling
• Carried out between 1998 and 2007 - culling for 5 years, and follow-up studies
for 4 years
• 30 areas of the country selected, each 100 square km in size
• 10 culled proactively, 10 reactively (in response to outbreaks), 10 not culled
• Badgers culled through being caught in cages and then shot
• Incidence of bovine TB measured on farms inside and outside study areas
• Reactive culling suspended early after significant rise in infection
• More than 11,000 badgers killed
Key conclusions
‘Badger culling can make no meaningful
contribution to cattle TB control’
[We] ‘recommend that TB control efforts focus
on measures other than culling’
Shooting badgers upsets their family groups,
causing surviving animals to move out of the
area, spreading TB further afield.
What’s the
alternative?
1) Vaccinate badgers
against bTB
2) Improve testing of
and biosecurity
cattle
3) Improve the living conditions and health
of cows so they are less likely to become ill
Arguments for the cull
28,000 cattle
were
slaughtered
due to bTB in
Something
has
to be
done
England in 2012 a 7% increase on 2011
need
be controlled
Badgers are
toto
blame
for spreading TB on to cattle
The Republic
of works
Ireland has been culling badgers
Culling
badgers
since 2004 and the number of cows with TB has
fallen dramatically
At
£662isper
vaccinating
Culling
theanimal
most cost
effectivebadgers
methodcosts
way too
much compared to shooting
Arguments against the cull
Badgers
Infected cattle
are being
passing
usedthe
asdisease
a scapegoat
onto other
by the
dairy
cattleindustry
is the main cause of the disease spreading
to new areas
Culling
badgers
doesn’t
work
Scientific
evidence
shows
that culling badgers
is counter productive
The cull method
is inhumane
Shooting
free-running
badgers in the dark is cruel
and will cause a great deal of animal suffering
Cure
not kill badgers
– culling is
is the
the more
wrongeffective
method
Vaccinating
and humane method of controlling bTB
Animal Aid: www.animalaid.org.uk
NFU: www.tbfreeengland.co.uk
Extra pic
Extra pic
Extra pic
Extra pic