Defra has announced plans for a new study, which will monitor badger activity in the South-West to determine whether or not badgers present a risk to farm animals in buildings.

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Wildlife Program Team Leader, Dr Gavin Wilson, commented on Thursday (4 April), "Recent research has shown that badger visits to farm buildings are widespread and common, but that some farms are more prone to badger visits than others. The purpose of our current project is to try to understand the reasons behind this, and develop a simple method to assess the risk of badger visits to any given farm.

"Ultimately, this is about helping farmers determine what the best bio-security measures are for their individual farms."

Defra said that, although research funded by the department confirmed badger visits to farm buildings are common and widespread in South West England, this could be prevented by the adoption of exclusion measures such as installing secure gates or electric fencing, and securing feed bags and bins.

However, although Defra said its research showed wildlife visits are common to certain areas of farms (such as feed stores), a study published last month by the Royal Veterinary College called some of the department's assumptions into question.

Study shows little interspecies contact on pasture

A study by RVC and government agency FERA looked at the movements of badgers and cattle in pastures and found that, contrary to previous assumptions, badgers and cattle very rarely come into direct contact. Concluding that the two species may even actively avoid one another, the researchers suggested that "it may be rare for bovine TB to be passed on through [cattle and badgers] meeting each other on pasture."

Lead author Dr Julian Drewe of the Royal Veterinary College explained the findings, "Direct contacts between badgers and cattle at pasture are surprisingly rare, despite ample opportunity for interactions to occur, suggesting that the two species may be ignoring or even actively avoiding one another." He did recommend that further investigations should look at the interaction between species around farm buildings.  

Tensions remain high in the South-West, between Defra and farming industry groups who believe that bTB must be addressed in the 'wildlife reservoir' and others who maintain that the government's preferred strategy of free-shooting badgers will prove costly, inhumane and ineffective in addressing bovine TB. As pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Dorset loom ever closer, a large number of eminent scientists in the latter camp are becoming more vocal in disputing the government's chosen course of action, including many of the experts behind the RBCT trials which provided most of the evidence used by Defra in making its current policy decision.

In February, Durham University Professor Peter Atkins released the results of a study conducted in Cheshire, which he said suggested "bTB in badgers is a spillover disease from cattle rather than an endemic condition and probably does not persist over lengthy periods." He added that his research, and previous investigations by the Independent Scientific Group did not reveal evidence of "interspecies transference… on the necessary scale" to justify seriously considering culling badgers.

Last year in England 28,000 cattle were slaughtered as part of bovine TB control measures. 24 percent of cattle herds in the South West were under cattle movement restrictions at some point in 2011, the last year for which figures are available.