5 Mar 2020
Field trials of a cattle vaccine and increased vaccination of badgers are also included in the next stage of the Government’s plan.
James Westgate
Job Title
The end of badger culling could be in sight after the Government revealed plans to tackle bTB in England.
In response to the independent Godfray review of its 25-year bTB strategy in 2018, Defra has now set out plans for its next stage, which includes:
Badger vaccination will be deployed in areas where the four-year cull cycle has ended, alongside ongoing surveillance of the disease in badgers in that area.
However, the Government will retain the ability to introduce new cull zones where local epidemiological evidence points to an ongoing role of badgers in maintaining the disease.
Surveillance testing, already mandatory in England’s high-risk area (HRA), will also be increased in frequency in two HRA counties – Shropshire and Staffordshire – from annual to six-monthly from later this year. It is expected this will be extended to all parts of the HRA from 2021.
The Government response also sets out plans to step up engagement with partners across the livestock industry to develop the bTB strategy further. It contains a detailed action plan for the next five years.
Environment secretary George Eustice said: “The badger cull has led to a significant reduction in the disease as demonstrated by recent academic research and past studies. But no one wants to continue the cull of this protected species indefinitely.
“Once the weight of disease in wildlife has been addressed, we will accelerate other elements of our strategy, including improved diagnostics and cattle vaccination, to sustain the downward trajectory of the disease.”
More than 30,000 cattle are slaughtered every year in a bid to tackle bTB, which costs taxpayers more than £100 million every year.
In 2013, the Government sanctioned the culling of badgers in certain HRAs – a controversial policy that has since been expanded to 43 areas and seen more than 130,000 badgers killed.
Analysis has shown the cull has delivered “significant reductions” in the spread of the disease to cattle, with disease breakdown incidence dropping significantly in the two original cull zones in Gloucestershire (66%) and Somerset (37%). However, no reduction was reported in Dorset, despite two years of culling.
Intensive culls, which cover 57% of England’s HRA for the disease, have been one phase of the long-term strategy to eradicate the disease by 2038.
Latest statistics on bTB in England show a 9% drop in the overall number of new herd incidents of the disease in the past year (to November 2019).
This represents a 10% reduction in the number of herds not officially free of the disease and a 4% reduction in the total number of animals slaughtered due to the disease. Full details of these statistics are available on the Defra website (http://bit.ly/2Q4SogL).
