The BVA, which distanced itself from the government position when Defra secretary Owen Paterson announced that badger culling would continue in two trial zones in South-West England last month, has clarified its pro-cull stance.

The Veterinary Association snubbed an appeal by the Badger Trust, which launched a High Court challenge against the government’s unpopular culling policy on Tuesday and sought its support. BVA had previously backed Defra's cull, but shied away in light of the Independent Expert Panel's verdict that culling last year had been inhumane and ineffective.

Launching a legal challenge on the basis that a lack of independent oversight in this year's cull will be illegal given that last year's efforts failed to meet two of the three self-set criteria on which culling was assessed, Badger Trust spokesperson Dominic Dyer said on Tuesday, "It is not acceptable for the DEFRA Secretary of State to now push aside the concerns of both the Independent Expert Panel and the British Veterinary Association, by moving ahead with a further badger cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset this summer without any independent monitoring in place."

Dyer continued, "To then make any decision on a national roll out of the hugely controversial badger cull policy without these independent monitoring safeguards, is in our view illegal and will lead to huge public and political anger. We therefore call on the British Veterinary Association and members of the 2013 Pilot Cull Independent Expert Panel to support the Badger Trust legal challenge."

However, on Thursday BVA president Robin Hargreaves informed the Trust that, in light of the BVA Council's agreed position on culling by 'controlled shooting', the Association will not back an application for a judicial review.

The BVA position, established on 16th April states that "BVA could only support further culling using controlled shooting in the pilot areas if steps are taken to improve both its effectiveness and humaneness and if there is robust monitoring and collation of results and independent analysis and auditing by a non-governmental body."

Hargreaves said the Association had been in contact with Defra officials, seeking assurance that the recommendations of the IEP will be implemented in time for culls in 2014, but added "We will not be taking a further position on the pilot culls until BVA Council has had the opportunity to consider Defra's plans in full, when they are made available."

Although scientific experts and architects of earlier culling trials maintain that badger culling is a "costly distraction" from meaningful bovine TB measures, Hargreaves stated, "BVA continues to believe that the TB eradication strategy for England will only be successful if we are able to use all of the available tools, including targeted, humane badger culling."

In February, when the IEP's findings became known, John McInerney, Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Policy at the University of Exeter said, "Bovine TB… is a disease of cattle and the badger is just an accessory, so badger culling (or vaccination) is just an accessory to the main problem. The control strategy has to be built directly around measures to limit the spread within the cattle population.

"It is not the case that the pilot culls were intended to limit the spread of bovine TB. The objective stated quite clearly at the outset was simply to ascertain the effectiveness and humaneness of shooting badgers as a method of culling."