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TB, Cattle and Badgers

A perspective on measures to control the spread of TB from badgers to cattle.

Year of Publication2008

The rising incidence of cattle TB is causing great consternation. Badgers have long been known to be a source of infection, but the effectiveness of culling as part of TB control strategy has always been unclear. The recently completed Randomised Badger Culling Trial provides the only scientifically credible information upon which to formulate and evaluate potential culling policies. It has shown that localised (‘reactive’) culling in response to a herd breakdown is counterproductive. ‘Proactive’ culling over a large (25,000+ acres) geographical area can significantly reduce cattle TB incidence, but because of badger perturbation it induces a rise in breakdowns on farms neighbouring the cull. Any culling programme would therefore need to be on a very large scale, conducted within boundaries to badger movement, and implemented systematically over many years. Economic analysis, however, shows this to be grossly cost ineffective, regardless of the culling method used. Cattle-to-cattle spread appears to be the dominant cause of breakdowns. Vaccines (for badgers or cattle) may ultimately offer some prospect, but intensive application of available cattle-based measures must underpin the immediate attack on the problem. Nevertheless, TB will remain a difficult issue for the cattle industry to deal with.

This item is categorised as follows

• Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy
• Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy > Animal health & welfare
• Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy > Beef production
• Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy > Dairy production
• Subject Collection > Environmental impact > Wildlife & biodiversity

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