Badger cull pilot in Wales leads to more questions than answers
Old Codger
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As the Welsh Assembly today debates a proposed cull of badgers as part
of a programme to eradicate bovine TB, the National Trust – which has
50,000 hectares of land in Wales - has expressed concerns about the
proposed cull’s likely effectiveness and scientific rigour.
Statement on badgers and culling
Iwan Huws, the National Trust’s Director for Wales, says,
'We feel that a targeted badger cull in an ‘intensive action pilot
area’ would be counter productive and would not make a major
contribution to controlling bovine TB in cattle. The National Trust is
not against the culling of badgers per se, but the purpose of the cull
needs to be clear and the measure effective, and based on the findings
of the Independent Science Group (ISG)'
The best route to tackling bovine TB in cattle is to introduce a
package of control measures from those recommended in the report
published by the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee
in February. These measures include steps to improve cattle
surveillance and control and support for the GB vaccination programme
which together we believe offer the most sustainable solution to
controlling bovine TB in cattle.
To be a success any cull would need to meet the requirements set out
by the ISG. The big stumbling block is that there is no suitably
bounded area of Wales which is large enough to meet the ISG criteria.
This is why the National Trust would be unlikely to participate in a
voluntary cull on land that we manage directly. A particular concern,
based on the experience of the Krebs trial, is that a failure to
remove all badgers in the pilot area could result in an increased
occurrence of bovine TB in cattle. This is because of a perturbation
effect whereby badgers that survive the cull become more mobile and
could spread the disease to other badgers and cattle. Culls of badgers
could have a detrimental impact on farmers including National Trust
tenants.
The introduction of a range of control measures at the same time as a
pilot would make it difficult to assess which is the most effective
means of controlling bovine TB in cattle. There is also a need to
clarify what is meant by the pilot action being subject to ecological
reviews, ethical considerations, epidemiological assessments,
practical implementation and legal requirements. These criteria are
likely to be fundamental in assessing whether a cull would go ahead
and there needs to be re-assurance that any cull would only happen if
these are met.
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Statement on badgers and culling
The National Trust welcomes the EFRA Select Committee’s conclusions
that a multi-faceted approach should be adopted to tackle cattle TB.
We support the strategic approach proposed to include:
more frequent cattle testing, with more frequent and targeted combined
use of the tuberculin skin test and the gamma interferon test;
the evaluation of post movement cattle testing;
greater communication with farmers on the benefits of biosecurity
measures;
the deployment of badger and cattle vaccines when they become
available in the future; and
continued work on the epidemiology of the disease.
With regard to any proposal to cull badgers as a means of controlling
cattle TB, we are not against the culling of badgers per se, but based
on the scientific evidence available from the Independent Scientific
Group (ISG) we do not believe it is likely to be effective.
From the ISG’s conclusions we are concerned that any significant
decline in cattle TB could only be achieved through such large scale
and draconian measures to reduce badger numbers as to make the option
impractical, unaffordable and publicly unacceptable. Any cull which
is less comprehensive than necessary carries a risk of increasing the
disease problem.