Badger culls risk increased spread of TB to cattle, study finds

9 October 2019

Culling badgers drives them to roam further afield, allowing them to disperse tuberculosis over a larger area, new research suggests.

The culls might thus increase the risk of TB spreading to cattle, the scientists behind the study warn.

The government commissioned its own review of the culls, but has yet to respond to the recommendations.

The review urged the government to explore alternative approaches to culling.

It was led by zoologist Sir Charles Godfray, from Oxford University.

The government said its own research indicated that the culls were working.

Co-author Rosie Woodroffe, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), said the results backed the scientific consensus that culling will - at best - slow the spread of TB only to a modest extent.

Additionally, it could potentially accelerate infection.

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Badger cull in England extended to ‘unimaginable scale’

Ministers approve culling in 11 new areas, with 64,000 animals likely to be killed this autumn

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Wed 11 Sep 2019 16.44 BSTLast modified on Wed 11 Sep 2019 20.35 BST

The controversial badger cull in England has been expanded to an “unimaginable scale”, according to a leading expert who warned the government is paying far too little attention to the transmission of tuberculosis between cattle when they are traded.

Ministers approved culling in 11 new areas on Wednesday, taking the total to 43. Up to 64,000 animals are likely to be killed this autumn, up from a maximum of 42,000 last year.

TB infections in cattle blight farms and cost taxpayers more than £100m a year in compensation payments. But scientists and conservationists oppose the cull, saying there is little evidence it is effective and is being badly run.

The cull started in 2013 in Gloucester and Somerset and takes place in 43 areas, from Cornwall to Cumbria. A proposed cull in Derbyshire, where a badger vaccination programme has been taking place, was not approved.

“Bovine TB remains the greatest animal health threat to the UK,” the farming minister, George Eustice, said. He added that there was no single measure to beat the disease, with tighter cattle movement controls, improved biosecurity on farms and badger vaccination all required.

A large-scale trial of badger culling that ended in 2006 indicated that a minimum of 70% of a badger population must be killed for a cull to be effective. If fewer are culled, disruption of badger social groups can lead to TB being spread more widely.

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Vet says badger culls caused 'immense pain'

By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

9 September 2019

Up to 9,000 of badgers are likely to have suffered "immense pain" in culls to control cattle TB, according to a former government adviser.

Prof Ranald Munro is the ex-Chair of an independent expert group appointed by the government to assess its trials.

He has written to Natural England to say that the policy is causing "huge suffering".

He adds that the culls are not reducing TB in cattle and in one area the incidence of the disease has gone up.

The culls began in 2012 following appeals from cattle farmers whose livelihoods are continuing to be damaged by the spread of TB.

Prof Munro's independent expert group found that up 23% of badgers took more than five minutes to die after they were shot. These figures prompted the group to conclude that the culls were inhumane in its assessment report to government. This document's publication was delayed but its contents were revealed by BBC News in 2014.

The independent expert group was disbanded by the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) ministers, who said that its work had been completed - though this was against the wishes of many of the experts involved, with one claiming that ministers were "wilfully" ignoring scientific advice.

Speaking ahead of the expected announcement of new culling areas for 2019 later this week, Prof Munro estimates that 40,000 badgers have been culled so far which according to the expert group's figures equates to thousands of them dying slowly.

"The numbers are huge, they really are. If you look at the likelihood of not dying within five minutes of being shot, you are looking at 3,000 badgers having suffered immense pain at a minimum. It could be as high as 9,000. There is a huge issue of suffering in these badgers."

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Record 32,000 badgers shot in annual cull

Scientists accuse officials of cherry-picking data to defend disease-control scheme

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Tue 18 Dec 2018 14.06 GMTLast modified on Tue 18 Dec 2018 16.25 GMT

More than 32,000 badgers were killed in England this autumn during the annual cull, which is intended to reduce tuberculosis in cattle.

Government officials claimed the culls were effective and starting to reduce prevalence of the disease in cows. But independent scientists said the officials were cherry-picking data and making up targets as they went along.

TB in cattle costs taxpayers £100m in compensation each year, with 33,000 infected animals slaughtered in 2017. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, approved a huge expansion of badger culling in September. This resulted in the largest number of animals killed to date.

An independent review of TB control, commissioned by Gove and published in November, concluded that frequent trading of cattle and poor biosecurity on farms was “severely hampering” control efforts. It was wrong to blame badgers as the main cause of the outbreaks, the scientists said, although Gove had told them not to assess whether the current badger culls were working.

Data published on Tuesday shows that in the 30 culls taking place across England, 32,601 badgers were shot this autumn, the highest number on record.

An earlier 10-year trial of badger culling showed it was vital to kill at least 70% of badgers in an area to reduce TB in cattle, but as a protected species badgers must not be wiped out either. Therefore, minimum and maximum cull targets are set.

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Badger culling has 'modest' effect in cutting cattle TB

By Pallab Ghosh

Science correspondent, BBC News

13 November 2018

An independent scientific review has said that badger culling can have a "modest" effect in reducing cattle TB.

But it adds that the policy would lead to more than 40,000 badgers being culled a year.

The report says that such high levels of culling may not be publicly acceptable.

The authors urge the government to accelerate the development of non-lethal controls, such as vaccination.

The findings were published in a review led by Prof Sir Charles Godfray of Oxford University.

But one expert said the report had little to say about the effectiveness of the current badger culls.

The report was commissioned by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in February.

He asked an independent group of scientists to review Defra's strategy for controlling the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle. According to Prof Godfray he was "explicitly asked" not to look at the effectiveness of the current culls.

Instead Prof Godfray and his team drew on the results of the Randomised Badger Control Trials carried out between 1998 and 2007.

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Secret filming reveals hidden cruelty of licensed badger culls

‘Brutal slaughter’ will cost £1,000 per animal, claim campaigners, as government defends battle to beat bovine TB

Jamie Doward

Sun 30 Sep 2018 10.00 BSTLast modified on Sun 30 Sep 2018 10.26 BST

Trapped in a cage and shot at close range, the badger takes almost a minute to die. Covert footage published online by the Observer, the first to be shared publicly, shows the main method of dispatching Britain’s largest indigenous carnivore as part of a controversial cull now being expanded by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, which farmers insist is vital to curb the spread of TB in cattle.

Taken in Cumbria by the Hunt Investigation Team, it has been released by animal rights groups for maximum political effect ahead of the Conservative party conference, as Gove considers a key report on the government’s TB eradication strategy. Animal rights activists said the footage raised questions about how the cull works.

 “The brutal slaughter of tens of thousands of badgers in the biggest destruction of a protected species in living memory is a national disgrace,” said Dominic Dyer, CEO of the Badger Trust. “This war on wildlife has been carried out in secrecy by poorly paid contractors with no independent monitoring or concern for animal welfare or public safety. The film footage that has emerged from Cumbria is the first time we have seen evidence of cull contractors at work. It clearly shows a badger taking over 50 seconds to die after being shot in a cage, and contractors removing it from the site without bagging and sealing the carcass in line with government TB biosecurity guidelines.”

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Activists publish list of badger cull farmers to 'sabotage' their time

Stop the Cull group says it will not threaten cull organisers but rather disrupt them

Steven Morris

Tue 21 Aug 2018 17.44 BSTLast modified on Tue 21 Aug 2018 19.40 BST

Animal rights activists have published what they claim is a comprehensive list of farmers leading the badger cull complete with addresses, phone numbers and a map.

The Stop the Cull group has suggested its supporters get in touch with the scores of cull organisers it says it has identified to express their opposition, “sabotage” their time by making misleading phone calls or arrange demonstrations outside their farms.

Stop the Cull insists it is not encouraging anyone to harass or threaten organisers but said its move will disrupt those carrying out what it says is a cruel and immoral government policy.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) condemned the tactic, claiming it was designed to frighten and intimidate ordinary farming families.

Another group that campaigns against the cull, the Badger Trust, said it understood the anger but expressed concern that the tactic could lead to people being threatened.

Stop the Cull claims its list exposes more than 100 directors of companies set up to carry out the cull, which is due to begin again in the next few weeks.

It says on its website: “We believe that the public should know where the badger killers reside so that anyone can make their feelings known to them.”

The site suggests activists block their numbers from being seen before ringing cull organisers or buy cheap mobile phones and pay-as-you-go sim cards. “It’s a small investment to make, knowing you can tie killers up for hours.”

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Badger cull policing cost £800,000 in one county

Opponents of cull say cost of £1,000 per animal killed means it is wasteful as well as cruel

Steven Morris

Tue 1 May 2018 14.32 BSTLast modified on Tue 1 May 2018 22.00 BST

The cost of policing the controversial badger cull in just one of the 21 zones last autumn approached the £1m mark – the equivalent of more than £1,000 for every animal killed there.

Objectors to the cull described the bill for Cheshire as a horrendous waste of public money and called for the policy to be scrapped on economic as well as animal cruelty grounds.

The zone in Cheshire was one of 11 new areas where the cull, which is designed to help eradicate bovine TB in cattle, took place in the autumn of 2017.

In January, a member of the organisation Wounded Badger Patrol asked Cheshirepolice under freedom of information legislation how much the operation for policing the cull – codenamed Operation Aviator – cost.

At first the force said it did not hold the information but a member of the patrol, appealed, writing: “Having been out in the cull zone five nights a week and the police liaison for one of the groups, I know how many police officers were taken off normal duties ... as well as seeing the number of police in cars/riot vans out each night of the cull period.”

Last month the force apologised for not providing the information and revealed it had charged the Home Office £831,000 for the badger cull operation.

According to government figures, 736 badgers were killed in the Cheshire zone in 2017 over 48 days. In all, there were 21 cull zones in England in 2017 involving seven police force areas.

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Devon police under fire for proposal to suspend badger protection law

Devon and Cornwall force’s idea to ease the pressure of policing the cull was termed ‘appalling’

Steven Morris

Sun 28 Jan 2018 13.48 GMTLast modified on Sun 28 Jan 2018 22.00 GMT

A police force has been strongly criticised by animal rights campaigners after proposing the suspension of the law that protects badgers in areas where the government’s controversial cull has been taking place.

Devon and Cornwall police suggested that decriminalising the taking of badgers in cull zones would ease pressure on resources, save the public money and could help stop the spread of bovine TB.

The force insisted it was not suggesting abolishing the Protection of Badgers Act across the UK but campaigners claimed the proposal would lead to “open season” on badgers.

The Badger Trust called the suggestion “appalling”. Its chairman, Peter Martin, said: “This is them simply trying to make their role in policing the cull easier by allowing all and sundry to be out and about killing badgers in the cull zones. It would create a completely unregulated slaughter of wildlife.”

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As badger culls begin, could one pioneering vet’s bovine TB test end the slaughter?

Research at a secret location in Devon may help eradicate bovine tuberculosis without a single badger being killed, says leading vet

Patrick Barkham

Sunday 15 October 2017 00.04 BST

A pretty stone farmhouse sits in a bucolic green valley, surrounded by airy cowsheds. It looks like a timeless west country scene but is actually a pioneering farm, where cutting-edge science is helping to solve the hugely controversial, multimillion-pound problem of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).

As an expanded badger cull gets under way this autumn, in which 33,500 animals will be killed to help stop the spread of the disease, a leading vet, Dick Sibley, believes this Devon farm demonstrates a way to eradicate the disease in cattle – without slaughtering any badgers.

Sibley’s trial, at a secret location, was halted earlier this year when two new tests to better identify bTB in cattle were deemed illegal. But government regulators have now given the vet permission to continue. His work is backed by rock star-turned-activist Brian May, whose Save Me Trust last week began a four-year programme of vaccinating badgers at the farm against bTB.

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Badger culling gets go ahead in 11 new areas of England

11 September 2017

Licences have been issued for badger culling in 11 new areas in Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Cheshire.

Culling is part of the government's 25-year strategy to eradicate bovine TB, but opponents say there is no evidence it is effective.

A badger vaccination programme to stop the spread of TB is restarting.

The Badger Trust condemned the policy as "politically motivated' and an "insult to the nation's intelligence".

The new licences have been granted by Natural England.

It follows a decision to extend culling in areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset.

The government said it will launch a new advisory service for farmers in high risk areas this autumn advising them how to limit the spread of the disease.

Farming Minister George Eustice said: "Bovine TB not only has a devastating impact on our beef and dairy farms, but causes harm and distress to infected cattle.

"Vaccination is just one part of our comprehensive strategy, which also includes tighter cattle controls, improved biosecurity and badger control in areas where bTB is rife, to tackle the reservoir of disease in wildlife."

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Taxpayers spend £500,000 on radios for badger cull marksmen

Police call for cull shooters to be given same hi-tech system they use – but activists buy counter-devices to disrupt shooting

Steven Morris and Patrick Barkham

Friday 25 August 2017 15.56 BSTLast modified on Friday 25 August 2017 22.00 BST

Hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen with radios that link them directly to police, the Guardian has learned.

Police have advised the government to invest in the same communications system they use to make it easier for officers to get to conflicts with cull saboteurs in remote areas where the mobile phone signal is poor.

However, anti-cull activists plan to turn the tables on the marksmen by investing in devices that trace the signals produced by the radios, meaning they can pinpoint their position and disrupt shooting.

Another hi-tech tactic protesters are planning to use is deploying infra-red night vision on drones to hunt for marksmen and badgers caught in traps.

The government is expected to announce imminently that the cull will be expanded into new areas this autumn.

Almost 15,000 badgers have been killed since the first culling took place in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2013. This year, protesters believe the cull will extend east to Wiltshire and north to Cheshire and a further 20,000 badgers killed.

Since the cull began, there has been tension between police and protesters over whether officers help keep shooters a step ahead of activists. The police insist they do not take sides but treat both even-handedly.

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Badger cull could see boom in foxes, stoats and weasels

Conservationists fear negative impact on ecosystem and call on the government to release cull data

Jamie Doward

Saturday 8 July 2017 22.01 BST Last modified on Saturday 8 July 2017 23.40 BST

It is one of the more neglected dimensions of the badger cull, but one that could reignite the controversy surrounding the attempt to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

Conservationists have long claimed that eliminating badgers from certain areas is likely to trigger an increase in other predators, such as foxes, leading to serious consequences for species and habitats. But the government has refused to publish data showing what impact the cull is having on local ecosystems for fear that the results will be used by animal rights activists to identify the farmers and landowners carrying out the extermination.

Now, following a three-year battle, the Information Commissioner’s Office has told Natural England – the government’s adviser on the natural environment – to provide the analysis within weeks or risk ending up in the high court. The ruling will also have significant consequences for the other information that the body is withholding on the grounds of public safety, conservationists predict.

A recent report for the Welsh assembly suggested that removing badgers would see numbers of other predators – such as foxes, stoats and weasels – increase, something that could have a negative impact on ground-nesting birds, notably the chough, a member of the crow family. Research sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and published in 2007 suggested that “badger culling … is likely to result in markedly higher fox densities. This raises issues relating to the costs of predation on livestock and game, the ecological impact of foxes in conservation terms as predators of ground-nesting birds and hares, and risks to public health as potential vectors of rabies”.

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Government badger cull kill targets 'deliberately set too low'

Lower cull targets are easier to achieve but risk increasing instances of TB in cattle rather than reducing them, warns expert

Wednesday 29 March 2017 10.06 BST Last modified on Wednesday 29 March 2017 17.40 BST 

The government’s killing targets for the controversial badger cull in England are “deliberately being biased down”, according to a leading animal population expert.

The badger cull, now rolled out to seven counties in England, is part of efforts to reduce the scourge of tuberculosis in cattle but has been heavily criticised by scientists. 

Farmers failed to meet the targets for badgers shot in the first culls and the lower targets have been easier to achieve. But scientists warn that lower targets run the risk of actually increasing TB in cattle, because the remaining badgers roam more widely and can spread the disease further afield.

 “The targets are being based on poor estimates of [badger] population size and are deliberately being biased downwards,” said Prof Tim Coulson, at the University of Oxford, who was a member of the government’s Independent Expert Panel that scrutinised the first year of culling in 2013 before being disbanded.

This less accurate method produces a population estimate with very wide error bars and, rather than using the central estimate to calculate the cull target, the government is using the very lowest figure at the bottom of the range of uncertainty. This leads to a cull target likely to be much lower than needed to remove a high proportion of the badgers. 

“The tools are out there to do this properly,” Coulson said. The “gold standard” method, he said, was to capture and identify badgers and then recapture them to calculate a good estimate of the population before and after culling, but that this was discontinued after the first year of culling: “The reason for that was primarily financial.”

Badger populations are now estimated using sett numbers and other landscape features which Coulson said was not very accurate. Furthermore, the government was setting the killing target at the lowest end of these estimates, he said. 

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