1 Aug 2025
The AHDB called for discussion of the topic to be ‘rooted in science’ after the TV host said his team were ‘devastated’ by the outbreak.
Allister Webb
Job Title
Jeremy Clarkson Image: James Manning/PA
An industry group has insisted efforts to reduce levels of bTB in England are working after TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson revealed his farm had been hit by the disease.
The former Top Gear host said everyone at the Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire was “devastated” by the incursion in a post on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday, 31 July.
The news is likely to bring renewed focus to the area, particularly amid the long-running and continuing dispute over the effects of badger culling on disease levels.
But the AHDB urged discussion of the issue to be “rooted in science” as it said it was “sorry” to hear of Mr Clarkson’s situation.
In its own X thread today, the board said: “England’s TB eradication strategy is working. Over the past decade, we’ve seen a marked decline in bovine TB, with 2023 recording the lowest number of new herd breakdowns in 20 years.
“But we know the journey isn’t over. Many farms are still dealing with devastating impacts.
“We need a collaborative, science-led approach, using every effective tool available, to build a resilient and sustainable farming future free from bTB.”
The thread also claimed multiple studies had “demonstrated” badger culling can be an effective means of controlling disease levels.
But those claims have been fiercely contested in recent years, amid scientific research suggesting culling has had no effect at all and campaigners’ assertions that the focus on badgers has failed both farmers and wildlife alike.
In a response published on its website, the Badger Trust described the news from Mr Clarkson’s farm as “troubling” but argued that his own previously recorded assertion that he had “shot all the badgers” on his land showed they were not the problem.
The group said it would send Mr Clarkson a copy of its Tackling Bovine TB Together report and urged him to seek a solution that benefited all parties.
It added: “Tackling Bovine TB is a complex challenge that requires collaboration, rather than division.”
The latest bTB flashpoint comes nearly a year after Defra announced plans to end the cull by the end of the current Parliament as part of what it called a “comprehensive” strategy to eliminate the disease.
The move was announced only days after a BBC documentary fronted by the Queen guitarist Sir Brian May, which was branded “misleading” by cull supporters, suggested the disease could be spread within herds through faecal contamination of feed and water supplies.
Since then, though, anti-cull groups have raised doubts over the process, particularly relating to a review of scientific evidence which they saw as “rigged” in favour of further culling activity.
