On Thursday, Defra published the results of the second year of badger culling in two pilot areas of Somerset and Gloucestershire. Environment secretary Liz Truss also announced new measures which will form part of the government's bovine TB eradication strategy to coincide with the release.

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Shooters achieved their kill target in Somerset (though only by 25 animals), but bagged less than half the minimum number of badgers required in Gloucestershire, where Defra said anti-cull activists had a stronger presence. The majority of badgers this year were trapped and shot (up from 40 percent in 2013), not shot while running free, the methodology which the culls were initially intended to test.

According to monitoring by quango (and cull licensing body) Natural England, shooting, which began on 9th September this year, appeared to be more humane than last year's cull, with no animals taking more than five minutes to die, and a smaller 'non-retrieval rate' (of badgers fired at but missed or potentially wounded). Shot badgers were not tested for TB.

Defra came under fire ahead of the cull for refusing to allow independent monitors to oversee culling, after the Independent Expert Panel appointed in 2013 found that the first year of pilots had failed on the grounds of both humaneness and efficacy.

Upon publishing the figures on Thursday, Defra secretary Liz Truss restated her support for badger culling and said, "During the last parliament bovine TB rates in England soared to the highest in Europe. That is why we taking strong action in pursuing our comprehensive strategy, including tighter cattle movement controls, vaccinations and culling.

"The Chief Vet's advice is that results of this year’s cull in Somerset show they can be effective."

Though chief Vet Nigel Gibbens did recommend that "Culling should continue [in Somerset] in 2015, and at least for one further subsequent year," the Defra advisor departed from the government line somewhat, in acknowledging that culling has failed in Gloucester.

Mr Gibbens said, "Given the lower level of badger population reduction in the Gloucestershire cull area over the past two years, the benefits of reducing disease in cattle over the planned four year cull may not be realised there."

He nevertheless recommend that culling continue in Gloucestershire, "Provided there are reasonable grounds for confidence that it can be carried out more effectively" in 2015.

In the wake of the 2013 culls, the Chief Veterinary Officer was forced to deny accusations made by ten prominent members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons that he had brought the veterinary profession into disrepute by claiming culling had been a success when targets were missed in both zones and signing off lengthy extensions to culling in both pilot zones.

New TB measures announced

Defra also announced a raft of new measures on the back of increased EU Commission funding for bTB control. The department has published a Biosecurity Action Plan, which sets out ways to help farmers reduce the risk of disease spread on their farms, and a new service will give farmers within the badger cull areas bespoke veterinary advice on TB management.

There are also plans to launch a consultation on a package of tougher cattle measures in the New Year, including statutory post-movement testing for cattle entering the Low Risk Area.

Other planned measures for next year include launching a web-based map showing locations of TB under new statutory powers introduced earlier this year and publishing disease reports for the Edge and Low Risk Areas. Defra has also awarded £50,000 in small grants to livestock markets to raise awareness of bTB and biosecurity.

Responding to the new measures, NFU president Meurig Raymond said, "Our aim remains the same as it has always been – the control and eradication of bovine TB using all available options. This includes… the use of cattle vaccination when it's available, and the use of appropriate cattle testing and movement controls that help with disease control while allowing businesses to continue to operate viably.

"But it also has to include control of the disease in badgers in areas where bTB is endemic if we are ever going to stand a chance of controlling and eradicating bTB."

Reacting to the release of cull data, Mr Raymond continued, "We welcome the fact that the Chief Veterinary Officer has said that this year's results in Somerset show culling can be carried out safely, humanely and effectively. The results from Gloucestershire highlight the need for the current model to be looked at to make it more difficult to stop operations being sabotaged."

The NFU president called for a roll-out of culling to new areas. Defra ministers have previously stated that no decision will be made on extending the badger cull until after the May 2015 election.

Also reacting to the government figures, Humane Society International lambasted the environment department for releasing its cull data one day before Parliament breaks up for Christmas. HSI director Claire Bass also said the Chief Vet's recommendation "rubber-stamps cruelty to animals and flies in the face of almost unanimous opinion from scientists that the cull is not an effective means to tackle cattle tuberculosis."

Bass continued, "Hundreds of badgers have been slaughtered as scapegoats to appease a vocal minority of farmers resisting the reforms of farming practices which would control TB. If Defra decides to carry on with the cull for a third year it will again be firmly placing politics above science and ethics.

"Sneaking this announcement out on the last day of Parliament before Christmas speaks to the failings the government must recognise in its own policy. It fails animal welfare by subjecting supposedly protected animals to inhumane shooting; it fails farmers by promising a solution to TB that scientists agree cannot be delivered by killing badgers; and it fails the public by wasting valuable funds that could be far better deployed on nationwide badger vaccination, improved farm biosecurity and stricter cattle movement measures."

When the independent experts' assessment of 2013's pilot culls was released in February, John McInerney, Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Policy at the University of Exeter commented to the Guardian, "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. There was no intention to determine whether it might limit the spread of the disease because nothing was done to measure the levels of bovine TB either before, during or after the culls took place, and no disease measurement comparisons between the cull area and an area where culling was not happening were made."

"Bovine TB is unarguably a serious problem in cattle farming, but the continual focus on the badger aspect is getting in the way of proper rigorous thinking about disease control. bTB 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, and until this is done we will never get on top of the problem."