The Government has pledged to end badger culling within five years as it comes up with a new strategy to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB).
More than 230,000 badgers have been killed and 278,000 cows have been compulsorily slaughtered in efforts to control the disease, costing taxpayers more than £100 million every year, it said.
The new “holistic” strategy includes a badger vaccinator field force to increase vaccination-rates, measures to control cattle, a nation-wide wildlife monitoring programme, and a pledge to speed up work on a cattle vaccine.
It is the first novel strategy for controlling bTB to be introduced in a decade, the Department for Environmental and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
The Government has aimed to eradicate bTB by 2038 and hoped the new strategy will help England become officially TB free (OTF), as well as protect farmers’ livelihoods.
RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said: “This announcement is really welcome and marks a watershed moment in the fight against bovine tuberculosis.
“We are concerned, however, that badgers will still face up to another five years of being needlessly killed in the name of bovine TB eradication.
“Bovine TB is an issue which is devastating to farming communities. For many years, we have been pressing for a more science-led approach to solve this terrible disease.
“230,000 badgers have been pointlessly killed in the cull since 2013, despite Government data which found no evidence that culling badgers has had an effect on eliminating tuberculosis in cattle.”
As a result, solutions should focus on boosting the frequency and quality of cattle tests and vaccinations, and managing the movement of cattle, he said.
“We are calling for an immediate halt to new culls and a reduction in badgers allowed to be killed in any of the licensed culls”, Mr Sherwood added.
“We fear that the population survey of badgers announced today will show depleted numbers of a protected species so we can’t wait another five years for that to happen.”
The last major badger survey was carried out between 2011 and 2013 meaning policy-makers have had “no clear idea of the impact culling techniques have on our badger populations”, the Government said.
A survey will look at badger populations and the impact of widespread culling, and a wider wildlife programme will study the disease in animals such as deer, as well as badgers, to inform where bTB vaccines and other measures are needed.
The badger vaccinator field force aims to “create progressively healthier badger populations that are less susceptible to catching and transmitting TB”, the Government said.
The Government hopes to encourage farmers to take part and that the study will “provide greater confidence” that doing so will have a “positive effect on their cattle”.
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel Zeichner, said: “Bovine tuberculosis has devastated British farmers and wildlife for far too long.
“It has placed dreadful hardship and stress on farmers who continue to suffer the loss of valued herds and has taken a terrible toll on our badger populations. No more.”
The strategy will be designed with farmers, vets, scientists and conservationists, the Government said.
Lord John Krebs, emeritus Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford, said: “The new TB strategy recognises that culling badgers is not going to eradicate bovine TB, because most new cases of TB arise from cattle-to-cattle transmission. This is a welcome shift in policy.
“Accelerating the development of an effective cattle vaccine that allows vaccinated and infected animals to be distinguished will provide a long-term solution and was recommended in my 1997 report.
“At that time, it was thought that it would take about 10 years to develop a vaccine – 27 years later the Government hopes it will take less than five years.
“An important missing piece in the press release describing the new strategy is an explicit plan to use more sensitive tests for TB in cattle to help to eliminate the hidden reservoir of infection in cattle.”
