What is Bovine Tuberculosis?

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a highly infectious disease of cattle which devastates thousands of farming businesses annually. Since the mid-1980s, the incidence of bTB in cattle has increased substantially creating an economic burden on the taxpayer and the farming industry, as infected cattle must be culled.

Government research shows that TB is not a major cause of death in badgers. Generally, infected badgers do not show any sign of infection and can survive for many years before suffering from severe emaciation.

Our position

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is appalled that badger culling is taking place locally. 578 badgers were killed in Hampshire 2021 and the government set a target of up to 1586 to be culled in 2022. We are strongly opposed to badger culling and continue to call on the Government to end the cull, develop a more effective bTB test and vaccination programme for cattle as a matter of urgency.

The Trust understands the hardship that bTB causes the farming community and the  disruption and anxiety caused by a herd breakdown. The Wildlife Trust itself operates two small farms and manages a herd of 250 cattle.  Our grazing animals play a pivotal role in the conservation management of our nature reserves, for the benefit of wildlife . 

We recognise that urgent action is required to combat bTB.  However, culling badgers is not the answer. 

The scientific evidence demonstrates that culling is likely to be ineffective in fighting the disease and, worse still, risks making the problem even worse. We believe the emphasis of all our efforts should be to find a long-term solution and we are calling for the Government to end its policy of culling these important, iconic and legally protected animals.

This is a cattle problem, not a badger problem. 

The control of Bovine TB in cattle should be the main focus of everyone’s efforts to control this problem. The evidence shows that badgers are not the primary cause of the spread of TB in cattle: the primary route of infection is via cattle-to-cattle contact.

The long-term solution to controlling TB in cattle is through vaccination of cattle and we want the Government to pursue development and rollout of a TB vaccine for cattle as a matter of urgency. The solution to controlling cattle to cattle and cattle to badger transmission in the short-term is through effective testing and other bio-security measures (e.g. feed stores and areas where cattle are fed should be badger proofed)

The cull is scientifically and economically unsound. 

The role of wildlife in transmission of bovine TB (bTB) has been greatly overstated by the Government. Analysis of the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s recommendations on badger culling found serious discrepancies in the scientific method used to recommend a cull. Indeed, there is no reliable peer reviewed evidence to show that badger culling alone is having a significant impact on lowering bovine TB in cattle in or around the cull zones. Indeed, there is a very real risk of exacerbating the spread and incidence of the disease in the badger population due to the ‘perturbation effect’.

Robust evidence is still lacking to demonstrate that badger culling is worth the loss of thousands of badgers and millions of pounds of public spending. 

What are The Wildlife Trusts doing?

The Wildlife Trusts have been working on the issue of bTB and its links to badgers for several years. During this time our activities have included:

• Lobbying the government to drop the Government’s failed badger cull policy and develop an alternative strategy to tackle bTB
• Collating, summarising and presenting the science on the spread of bTB
• Encouraging our members and supporters to write to their MPs to press for a different approach to eradicating Btb, without culling badgers.
• Working with Defra on a Badger Edge Vaccination Scheme
• Working in partnership with local and national wildlife organisations to campaign against the cull.

While we work with many Government bodies the Trust will never provide survey information to organisations that could be used to inform Badger culling operations.

Further information and the answers to frequently asked questions.