We are not launching a badger extermination programme

We're trying to protect dairy farming from TB, and the cull will go ahead in a limited area only

Christianne Glossop
The Guardian, Wednesday 27 January 2010

George Monbiot writes that "2010 is the Inter­national Year of Biodiversity. The Welsh assembly is celebrating the occasion by launching a project to exterminate the badger". Had he met with us to discuss the bovine TB eradication programme in Wales, his article may have been more informed (When our economic interests are at stake, the war on nature resumes, 18 January).
In 2008, 12,000 cattle in Wales alone were slaughtered because of bovine TB, and £24m spent on resulting compensation. Sir David King, former scientific adviser to the UK government, said last week that if we do not take decisive action on badgers, the TB epidemic could end dairy farming in Britain. We are determined to eradicate TB in Wales, and it is highly misleading to suggest that this is a badger extermination programme. We recognise the importance of tackling all sources of infection.
Badger culling will go ahead in a limited pilot area where the disease is rife, as part of a comprehensive TB eradication strategy. Several scientific trials, including the randomised badger culling trials to which Monbiot refers, have shown that culling badgers can reduce TB in cattle. Over the past two years, scientists, vets and animal-health and wildlife experts have worked together to develop our comprehensive TB eradication programme, including testing and modelling various strategies. We are not replicating previous trials, but applying lessons learnt from them. Furthermore, the decision to proceed with the programme in the pilot area was informed also by an independent ecological review.
Monbiot says: "The purpose of the experiment is to discover whether the number of cows with the disease is reduced when the badger is exterminated." But this isn't an "experiment"; it is a concerted effort to deal with all sources of infection. We know that culling badgers and heightened cattle measures can reduce TB in cattle – and we will apply both. This is a new approach in Britain, but comparable to the one which is delivering results in New Zealand, where both cattle and possums are infected.
"Governments should do more to control the way that cattle are kept, tested and moved," he says. But strict cattle controls, improvements to bio­security, and linking compensation to good practice on farms, are as much a part of our approach as the badger cull which grabs the headlines. We will use the programme to increase our knowledge of the disease, including evaluating both cattle and badger strategies alongside each other (answering Monbiot's point that "there is no means of telling which of the two measures is working").
We are also looking at how we could best use badger vaccination in Wales – when it is available and is a tested option – and have secured the legal powers to do so. But a badger vaccine is not helpful in an area where TB is already a serious problem, as it does not deal with badgers already infected. An option under consideration outside the pilot area is vaccination of badgers in areas of low infection to keep them disease-free. Finally, our offer to meet George still stands. It is important that we all understand the facts.