Farming

Livestock farming

Badgers and tuberculosis

Cattle grazing

The RSPB welcomes the Government's decision to reject a cull of badgers in England. The announcement was made on 7 July 2008 by Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of a package of measures to address the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in cattle.

As a significant landowner, using cattle as a valuable component of our land management, the RSPB is sympathetic to concern within the farming community over bovine TB. However, the RSPB has major concerns that badger culling would:

  • actually increase the spread of TB if carried out on a small scale
  • be impractical to carry out on a sufficiently large scale
  • damage the conservation status of the badger, which is a protected species.

For these reasons the RSPB is currently opposed to badger culling and will not voluntarily grant access for badger control on our land. The Independent Scientific Group on Bovine TB submitted its final report to Ministers on 18 June 2007. They concluded that 'badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain' and that 'the rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread constrained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone.'

Detailed studies on the effects of culling badgers show that killing over small areas will make the bTB problem worse, as animals move in search of safer ground or others from outside move in to fill the vacant territories, such movements lead to an increase in infection risk.

The RSPB is currently opposed to badger culling and will not voluntarily grant access for badger control on our land.

Killing badgers across a large area of countryside (e.g. 300 km2) might, in theory, lead to a reduction in disease. However, it would need to be carried out for many years, would be a huge undertaking and is likely to be highly impractical. It could only be done at great expense and in doing so would threaten the conservation status of the badger, which is a protected and popular part of our native wildlife.

The RSPB believes that in ruling out a cull in England the Government has paid attention to the science, and is acting in the best interests of farmers, cattle and badgers.

Renewed focus should now be applied to other measures to limit this disease. Increasing the effectiveness of the cattle testing regime and controlling the movement of infected animals will be key in reducing cattle to cattle tranmission. This will now be the task for the new Bovine TB Partnership Group announced by the Secretary of State.

In addition, we recognise the importance of reducing the risk of cattle to badger or badger to cattle transmission. It is therefore important that up to date biosecurity advice on measures to reduce such contact (eg. on the management of feed stores) is properly disseminated and fully implemented.

In the medium term, the best option for eradicating bTB is the development of vaccines for badgers and cattle against this disease. We therefore welcome the additional resources that the Government have committed for vaccine development and the announcement on an injectable badger vaccine (deployment trials to start in 2010).

In Wales, Elin Jones AM, Minister for Rural Affairs, announced in March that a cull would take place within an Intensive Action Pilot Area in north Pembrokeshire. This will form part of an overall bovine TB eradication programme that includes rigorous testing and increased biosecurity measures. The RSPB remains opposed to a cull for the reasons given above.

Last modified: 21 May 2009