July 19, 2011

expert reaction to Defra decision on badger culling in England

The government announced a plan to cull badgers in two pilot areas in south-west England to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

Prof Christl Donnelly, Professor of Statistical Epidemiology at Imperial College London, said:

“A number of concerns were raised about the government’s proposal in 2010 for badger control which included shooting free-ranging badgers. The government proposes to monitor humaneness and the effectiveness of the approach for removing 70% of the badgers in a control area in two pilot areas.

“If, after a successful pilot, further areas are subjected to such badger culling, it will still be years before the value of the policy, in terms of its impacts of cattle disease, can be estimated. This uncertainty arises because the Randomised Badger Culling Trial used government-implemented cage-trapping and shooting rather than farmers/landowners being licenced to shoot free-ranging badgers.”