With badger cull licenses coming into effect tomorrow, division and debate within the farming world about the immediate prospect of culling have reached a tense climax.

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Licenses granted by Natural England declare open season on badgers in two trial areas of Somerset and Gloucestershire from 1 June. Although Defra, backed by the NFU farm lobby, maintains that a cull of badgers is necessary to prevent the further spread of bovine TB, opponents have denounced the culling policy as a triumph of politics over science.

A parade of eminent scientists has condemned the cull; backed by conservationists they say the policy will prove expensive, inhumane and ineffective.

However, despite the furore over culling amongst farmers, rural residents and animal lovers, the results of a YouGov poll released yesterday reveal widespread confusion and massive apathy towards the divisive policy in the population as a whole.

Although only two percent of those asked responded that the cull is one of the major political issues facing Britain today, the poll revealed that opponents of the cull outnumber supporters. 34 percent of 1,763 people questioned opposed culling, while 29 percent supported the measure, 22 percent were on the fence and 15 percent had no strong feelings.

More than 38,000 cattle were compulsorily slaughtered in Great Britain as a result of bTB measures in 2012. The government is under great pressure to act on the disease, though critics have denounced Defra's determination to pursue culling as obstinate and ill-advised; former government chief scientist and president of the Royal Society Lord Robert May accused the government of "transmuting evidence-based policy into policy-based evidence" last year.

Although NFU spokesperson Adam Quinney said "Farmers are already playing their part in tackling TB. Robust new on-farm rules were introduced in January 2013 as part of the Government's TB eradication plan," cull opponents in the Badger Trust have been highly critical of Defra for taking so long to implement effective restrictions. They maintain that cattle measures, not badger culling, will prove effective in controlling the disease.

Quinney said, "A cull is not about wiping out badgers. It is about reducing TB in areas where it is endemic. This will ensure this terrible disease doesn't spread to areas of the country that are currently clear of it." He added that culling will work in tandem with "additional cattle controls, more pre-movement testing and increased on-farm biosecurity measures [introduced] last July."

However, responding to remarks by Defra Secretary Owen Paterson earlier this week, Badger Trust Chair David Williams said the North Shropshire MP "presides over his own department's failures in taking so long to toughen up cattle controls, and the disgraceful mistakes his advisers made over population estimates." Williams continued, "These destroy any confidence that he and his department could be taken seriously."