Animal of the Week September 17, 2012 -- hands off our badgers

It's a purple patch for the mustelids in terms of animal of the week, for this week's animal Meles meles (European badger), is a distant cousin of the otters, among the family of carnivores that also includes weasels, wolverines, polecats, martens, tayras, fishers, and ferrets.

It's not such a purple patch for the badgers of England, because the government has just issued the first culling licence to landowners in Gloucestershire, where it is hoped the cull will help to bring bovine tuberculosis under control. This preliminary licence will allow a consortium of landowners -- farmers, estate managers, and like -- to begin to cull badgers once they have proven that they have the funds to maintain a cull removing 70% of badgers for 4 years. The cull could begin in 3 weeks.

The possibility of culling badgers to reduce the damage caused by bovine tuberculosis has been considered for many years, to the extent that a randomised trial of badger culling was done to investigate the effects. The randomised badger culling trial ran for 9 years in the 2000s and was led by Professor Sir John Krebs, a highly respected scientist. In the trial, the tuberculosis incidence in areas in which badger culling took place was compared with that in areas where it did not. The study concluded that in areas where 70% or more of badgers could be culled, the incidence of bovine tuberculosis could be reduced by up to 16%. However, the study also found areas adjacent to culling sites that did not achieve a high badger mortality experienced increased incidences as infected badgers were displaced and moved to new homes. So the scientists concluded that culling badgers was not a particularly effective means of controlling tuberculosis, and if not done properly could lead to increased incidence of bovine tuberculosis.

Alternative approaches to reduce the impact of bovine tuberculosis are improved animal husbandry and hygiene, increased testing of cattle herds, more efficient exclusion of badgers from cattle sheds and pastures, and development of vaccines for cattle and badgers. There is a licensed badger vaccine, but that is costly to administer as large numbers of badgers would need to be caught and injected, so ideally an oral vaccine should be developed that can be given in bait. No cattle vaccine is licensed, because with the vaccines that are available, once given, because of the immune response it is impossible to tell a vaccinated cow from one that is infected.
Now, I am a pragmatist, and culling is essential in some settings. For example, since we did away with all our large predators, to maintain sustainable populations of herbivores, we have to fill that role in some woodlands to keep deer numbers in check so that trees can regenerate. But such culls should be based on necessity and evidence of benefit, not on pandering to pressure and not with ones eyes on votes and campaign funding for the next election. The badger cull is unneccessary, will lead to suffering for many animals, and could possibly lead to a huge decline in numbers of these delightful animals for a marginal or no benefit.

When I tweeted about the licence earlier, Defra kindly got back to me suggesting that scientists agree a badger cull could help, linking to a document summarising the conclusions of the culling trial. The document contains such supportive comments as these:
"If culling is not conducted in a coordinated, sustained and simultaneous manner according to the minimum criteria, then this could result in a smaller benefit or even a detrimental effect on confirmed cattle bTB incidence."
[Minimum criteria include taking out 70% of badgers, but the number of badgers is unknown, so no-one will know when 70% has been reached]
"In order to have a significant impact on national disease incidence, culling would need to be conducted over a very large area (bTB is currently considered endemic in over 39,000 square km of England – the area under annual bTB testing). The associated impact of culling at this scale on the national badger population is unknown."
"If culling is undertaken, it should be in addition to, not instead of, existing bTB control measures in cattle, which should be maintained and strengthened."
"Monitoring the implementation and impact of any badger culling policy, and the management of expectations, is of key importance."
[For which there is no plan.]
When interviewed about issuing of a the licence to cull earlier today, Krebs called the plan "crazy".

You can sign the petition to stop the cull here. It might be too late, although if the cull could be delayed to the closed season on December 1, then it could not take place again until June 2013 giving more time to make the government and farmers see sense.