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Cull could kill third of UK’s badgers

WESTERN MORNING NEWS
23 December 23, 2011

A widespread adoption of the Government’s plans for a badger cull to cut down on bovine TB could lead to up to a third of the country’s population of the animal being shot, an expert has warned.

The news was greeted with dismay by badger groups in the Westcountry who have branded the cull “a waste of time”.

Lord Krebs, who instigated the ten-year randomised badger culling trials in the 1990s, raised concerns about the Government’s new policy at question time in the House of Lords.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman announced last week that six-week trials will take place in two areas next year and could lead to a wider cull across the country as part of efforts to tackle TB in cattle.

But Lord Krebs said Mrs Spelman had pointed to the possibility of a “roll-out more widely”.

He asked: “Does this mean that the Government would consider rolling out this shooting policy to the 39,000 square kilometres of the English countryside that is affected by bovine TB with the implication that you would end up shooting between a quarter and a third of the UK’s badger population?”

Lord Krebs said a policy of badger culling could lead to a reduction in the rates of TB in cattle of 16 per cent.

But he said: “This pilot involves two areas. As a scientist I know of no statistical technique for analysing the results from a trial involving just two areas.”

Bob Speechley, co-ordinator of Cornwall Badger Rescue, said the possibility of trials being extended was “most unwelcome news”.

He said: “There is no point in holding these trials. We have had the Krebs trials and all they have shown is that culling badgers is of no significant use whatsoever. The way to sort out the TB problem is through better bio-security, better testing and a programme of vaccination.”

He said the original Krebs trials had been strongly resisted in West Cornwall and the idea of shooting badgers was both unpopular and impractical.

Junior environment minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach said the pilots were to “evaluate the effectiveness of the process” rather than to appraise the cull scientifically.

He added: “It is suggested that it will be a series of areas, not a total area, because that would defeat the process of trying to get areas that are viable of at least 150 square kilometres and perhaps as great as 350 square kilometres.”

Lord Taylor said evidence for the effect of badger culling on bovine TB rates came “principally from the randomised badger culling trial”.

He added: “The scientific evidence from the trial suggests that proactive badger culling done on significant geographic scale in a widespread, coordinated and efficient way and over a sustained period of time of at least four years will reduce the incidence of TB in cattle in defined areas.”

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