The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has warned against a kneejerk reaction to today’s report on tackling bovine tuberculosis (TB), which concludes that badger culling is unlikely to be a cost-effective way of helping control cattle TB in Britain.
The report "The duration of the effects of repeated widespread badger culling on cattle TB following the cessation of culling" analyses data from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) undertaken between 1998 and 2005 by Defra. It found that incidence of bovine TB in cattle reduced during culling but that the reductions subsequently declined after its cessation.
Commenting, Professor Bill Reilly, President of the BVA, said:
"This paper clearly demonstrates that badger culling did have an impact on the incidence of bovine TB in cattle, which is a very positive outcome.
"The Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) was undertaken in very specific circumstances and it could be misleading to extrapolate the findings to any future control programme.
"What we can learn from this paper is that any future badger cull, such as the proposed cull in West Wales, must be only one part of a package of control measures and take account of the findings resulting from the RBCT.
"The report, based on a single trial, concludes that badger culling is not cost-effective, but the cost of TB to farmers and the government is already incredibly high. Investment now could reduce the costs in the much longer term.
"The BVA warns against a kneejerk reaction to this paper that would rule out badger culling in the future. Bovine TB is devastating both livestock and wildlife and a range of control measures, including targeted badger culling, must be employed if we are to tackle the disease in the long term."