With the announcement that Defra would push ahead with plans for a badger cull as part of its package of bovine TB eradication measures on Tuesday (19th July), the storm that had been building between the cull’s fervent supporters in the farming industry and its detractors broke. image expired

Although many rural and farming organisations have come out in favour of a badger cull, its viability is still being questioned by critics of the proposals, who maintain stricter cattle controls and further investment in vaccines are needed. Labour MP Mary Creagh pointed out the conclusions of the scientists who carried out the previous government’s 10-year Randomised Badger Cull Trial (RBCT) and the final report of the Independent Scientific Group (ISG), which oversaw the study.

In the wake of the trial, the ISG stated, "the reductions in cattle TB incidence achieved by repeated badger culling were not sustained in the long term after culling ended and did not offset the financial costs of culling. These results...suggest that badger culling is unlikely to contribute effectively to the control of cattle TB in Britain."

It has been revealed that an ‘averaged size cull’ would cost farmers and landowners £1.4 million for the four year duration. The estimated price includes wages for trained marksmen, vaccinations where the sick animals cannot be shot and a culling licence.

Defra secretary Caroline Spelman announced on Tuesday that those involved with the cull would pay upfront, with aim of preventing farmers from abandoning a cull before it has been completed, which would carry a severe risk of increasing the spread of disease.

Cracks in the coalition?

Farmer and Conservative MP, Neil Parish, has said that a cull would save expense overall and that the ‘trap and shoot’ method would have been more expensive. However, Liberal Democrat Agriculture spokesperson Andrew George heaped criticism on the government’s adoption of an “untried and untested method” in opting instead for ‘controlled shooting’.

The British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA), a division of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) welcomed the government’s decision, a statement from the association read, “Through the consultation response the BVA and BCVA raised the important issue of the efficacy of an industry-led cull using controlled shooting (as opposed to cage trapping and shooting).”

Mr Parish estimated that the costs of a cull would be spread between around 100 farmers in the smallest permissible culling zones. Parish downplayed the costs, saying, “I don’t think they are terribly large sums. Most farmers believe this is a cost they have to take as they have called for this for so many years.”

Government halts vaccine development in its tracks

In her announcement to Parliament, Caroline Spelman called for a science-led approach to controlling bTB, however, writing in The Huffington Post Mary Creagh also revealed that one of the coalition’s first acts on coming to power was to cancel five of the previous Labour government's six trials into a TB vaccine for badgers.

Furthermore, On 13th July, just days before the Defra announcement, Professor John Bourne and six of his colleagues from the Independent Scientific Group, wrote to the Times stating, "there are no empirical data on the cost or effectiveness (or indeed humaneness or safety) of controlling badgers by shooting, which has been illegal for decades."

If a cull does go ahead it could be expected to result in a 16 per cent drop in bTB incidences in the worst affected areas for the entire period. Two six-week pilots of free shooting are expected to start next summer.