The end of the government consultation on bovine TB control measures is little more than a week away. As part of the consultation Defra will weigh up scientific evidence provided by a variety of stakeholders in order to make a final decision on whether to go ahead with controversial plans for pilot culls of badgers in areas where bTB is endemic. image expired

The final few weeks of the consultation have seen some in the farming industry react with increasing rabidity towards anyone who they believe may dent the prospect of a cull going ahead.

Farming minister Jim Paice today announced that he has no intention of replacing Natural England as the licensing body behind cull arrangements in England. Paice’s announcement is in response to calls from the National Beef Association (NBA) and the NFU to award the role to Animal Health (AHVLA), after the two organisations disagreed with elements of Natural England’s submission to the public consultation.

Natural England said it had a ‘low level of confidence’ that the cull would be effective at reducing incidence of bTB in its current incarnation. Under the plans, it would be Natural England that is responsible for issuing licenses; the body also recommended the number of these issued should be limited to no more than ten per year.

Mr Paice said the information provided by Natural England, which recommended increased measures to limit cattle to cattle spread, was extremely useful and explained that every aspect of cull proposals needed to be examined in detail as, if approved, the plans would surely be challenged in the courts.

However, despite the government response to their accusations, the NBA persist. On Wednesday (7th September) the organisation said it remained “concerned that Natural England does not want to be seen as approving a badger cull and that too many within the organisation are willing the pilot scheme to fail.”

Kendall takes row to the airwaves

NFU president Peter Kendall, who wrote a letter of complaint to Defra following the appearance on the BBC’s Farming Today programme of Natural England’s executive director for science and evidence Andrew Wood, spoke out again on Tuesday, offering his views on Natural England’s response.

Wood had said, “The methodology that the government is proposing here, controlled shooting, is not itself evidence-based. The evidence we have for a culling-based approach comes from the randomised badger culling trials, which used trapping and shooting.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today Mr Kendall said he was “appalled” by Natural England’s statement. He maligned, “That this government body [Natural England] had come out and said ‘actually we don’t think this can work,’ when the government has clearly told its agencies to deliver policy and not lobby against them, left me as I have said, absolutely staggered.”

Kendall went on to say, somewhat conversely, “In its manifesto agreement, the Conservative Party said they were going to move scientifically and the coalition agreement said that we were going to have a science-led approach and they asked Natural England to deliver that.”

However, Jack Reedy, spokesperson for the Badger Trust, said Natural England were right to express their concerns during the consultation process, that evidence-based, precautionary scientific principals must be at the heart of such a significant decision. He explained, “Natural England were invited to make a point and they have every right to do so in public, because it was a response to a consultation that was a public document.”

He continued, “We can’t have any more secrecy, any more quiet conversations in corridors. There has been far too much of that ‘briefing’ already. It should be out in the open and straight forward.” Mr Reedy said he was afraid that, as the process went on, there would be an increase in “Loud remarks without any support whatsoever, which isn’t going to lead us anywhere.” He concluded, “There will be a noisy debate about it [but] it’s not a matter of politics, you can’t judge science by a show of hands.”