New scientific study undermines case for badger culling

(c) Richard Hurrell

Attempts to justify the licenced killing of badgers, which began in England in 2013 as part of the government’s efforts to control the spread of bovine TB in cattle, and has, to date, resulted in the deaths of roughly 230,000 overwhelmingly healthy badgers across huge swathes of the English countryside, have relied heavily on the outcome of the so-called Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), which ran from 1998 until 2005.  

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The RBCT, considered the largest field experiment of its kind in history, was established to test whether killing badgers would result in a reduction of bovine TB in cattle, and followed many years of badger persecution in the name of disease control without evidence to justify it. The trial compared the incidents of cattle TB in areas where badgers were killed, with those where they weren’t. In total, some 11,000 badgers were shot during the trial. 

The report on the results of the RBCT, published in 2006, claimed that the proactive killing of enough badgers over a wide enough area could significantly reduce incidents of cattle TB, albeit the authors of the report advised against such a policy on the grounds that it would not be cost-effective. In spite of this, the incoming coalition government announced in 2010 that licenced badger culling would be introduced in England. 

The most recent study, led by eminent veterinary epidemiologist Professor Paul Torgerson at the University of Zurich, re-analysed the data from the RBCT, and concluded that, when using more suitable statistical methods and accounting for the rate of bovine TB in cattle across the study a during the trial, there was no evidence to support an effect of badger culling. 

Responding to the news, veterinarian Dr Mark Jones, Born Free’s Head of Policy, said: “This latest robust peer-reviewed study confirms what we have said all along – that there is no good evidence to suggest that badgers are a significant source of bovine TB in cattle, and that there is no justification for culling them. For more than a decade, Ministers and prominent figures in the farming industry have for years insisted that badgers must be killed in large numbers to prevent cattle from contracting TB, and government officials and scientists have repeatedly misinterpreted and misrepresented data in their defence, while seeking to rubbish any independent studies that questioned the policy, including our own published in the Veterinary Record in March 2022. This latest study undermines the very basis on which the licenced culls have been carried out over the past 11 years. The public, farmers, and most of all the badgers themselves, have been badly let down.” 

In its manifesto, the incoming Labour government described the culling of badgers as ‘ineffective’, giving some hope that the policy would soon be brought to an end. 

Dr Jones continued: “Bovine TB is devastating for cattle farmers, their herds and their businesses. However, culling badgers as a means of preventing it is cruel, costly and ineffective. It’s good to see the new Labour administration acknowledging this, and we call on them to acknowledge the newly published evidence and to bring the culling of badgers to an immediate and permanent end. Instead, the new government should focus on introducing the strict farm biosecurity measures, cattle trading restrictions and vaccination programmes that will finally bring bovine TB under control.” 

You can help by signing our petition to end the cull. 

Save the date: Born Free will be joining our friends and colleagues at Badger Trust in London on Tuesday 3rd September to hand in our petitions to DEFRA and meet Members of Parliament to demand an immediate and permanent end to badger culling. Join us if you can – more news coming soon.