A trial badger cull was established in the 1990s to assess its effectiveness in controlling bTB.
Lord John Krebs, who was behind that 10-year scientific trial, told the programme: “If you really want to control TB in cattle then killing badgers is not going to be a terribly effective policy.”
In 2011, the UK government decided to cull badgers in TB hotspots in England because – after re-interpreting the Krebs evidence – it concluded badgers could be contributing to the spread of bovine TB.
Farm industry board the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said: “Evidence from cull areas proves that there is a strong link between badger populations carrying the infection and the spread of the disease to cattle.
“Data from the first 52 cull areas, collected by the APHA (animal and plant health agency), also shows that rates of bovine TB breakdowns in cattle are down on average by 56% after four years of culling badgers. This analysis has been published in the scientific journal Nature after rigorous peer review.”
Between April 2023 and March 2024, more than 21,000 cattle were slaughtered in England after bTB was found, with 11,197 animals killed in Wales and 18,577 in Northern Ireland.
Scotland is officially bTB free and incidence is very low.
Labour pledged before last month’s general election to look at new ways to tackle bTB spread “so that we can end the ineffective badger cull”.
The UK government said it was working towards a situation where badger culling could be ended in England.
