Bovine TB strategy refresh is already stale

Failure to co-design bTB control strategy is coming to a head. Time to ring the alarm bells?

At the end of March, Defra Minister Angela Eagle and some of her bovine TB team met with a handful of representatives from the wildlife NGO’s (non government organisations) to talk about future strategy. Invitations were limited to a few Wildlife and Countryside Link members only: Born Free, Badger Trust, Humane World for Animals, RSPCA. Where were the larger nature conservation ngo’s one wonders. By special invitation, Protect the Wild were allowed to send a single representative. Defra also met with the NFU separately, as they do constantly.

Labour’s ‘refreshed’ bovine TB policy has now been delayed until ‘late spring’ (late May/early June?), but the meeting came far too late in the day for input into a document had been anticipated in April. The new strategy ‘refresh’ was originally to be ‘co-designed’ by all stakeholders, including independent scientists, and the NGO’s wanted to known why this had not happened. The governments hand picked external scientists, who have supported the claimed need for a badger cull for many years were once again heavily consulted along with the NFU. But the recently published British and overseas independent scientists with alternative views were refused dialogue, let alone input. So was this meeting perhaps just a consolation prize? A ‘pat on the head’ tick-box exercise to say that the ‘badger supporters’ had been involved in the process?

Angela Eagle announced, as she did at the Westminster Hall debate last October, that badger culling was coming to an end. No more intensive or supplementary cull licenses would be issued. There was no decision on the continuation of the one outstanding Low Risk Area cull in Cumbria, but apparently badger culling would be stopped at the earliest opportunity.

Worryingly however, Eagle apparently still referred to the need to maintain the ‘trust’ of the farmers via badger interventions. This seems to be an extension of Natural England’s decision in 2024 to continue badger culling, in order to provide the farmers with ‘clarity’. And going back further into the history books, it is the ‘carrot’ incentive for farmers to accept more regular bTB testing. A senior politician who spoke to vet John Bourne after the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT), was quoted as saying “Fine John, we accept your science, but we have to offer the farmers a carrot. And the only carrot we can possibly give them is culling badgers.” In other words, it looks very much like the badger remains a scapegoat for a cattle disease. Have we really not moved on after the unnecessary and cruel culling of a quarter of a million largely healthy badgers?

But even more worrying than that, as outlined by Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Eleanor Brown in a Veterinary Record feature article a few weeks ago, the door to culling is being kept open via ‘epidemiological culling’ and possibly by what was originally called ‘reactive culling’, or localized culling. None of this, however, has been discussed or described and it may be that the Minister is not actually aware of Defra’s detailed plans and its implications. It may not even be her concern if there is a reshuffle after the May elections, and it could well be that the ‘bad news’ or a policy fudge is being kept until then.

A form of ‘targeted’ (epidemiological or Low Risk Area-type culling) would bring a 100% badger kill approach to a core area, with some badger vaccination afterwards. Levels of application planned are unclear but the undercurrent is ‘carry on culling’, even if there is a gap between the Ministers intentions, and that of her staff. BTB can remain hidden in a herd despite testing for at least 15 years (see here), and it is well known that it can  be missed by routine testing. If a farm vet is unable to easily trace a source of infection to a failed reactor within a herd or a recently purchased animal, might they, as is done routinely in the Low Risk Area, just point a finger at badgers and request a license to cull? Or might a licence not even be required for this this new type of cull?

The  APHA ‘Disease Pathways’ form used by vets at breakdown sites has effectively been attributing disease to badgers by default for years (see here). This has resulted in outlandish claims regarding the proportion of cattle disease that originates directly from badgers. But results from culling trials and industry-led culling have been unable to show a disease benefit in cattle at all from badger culling (see here, here and here). In reality, BTB transmission from badger to cattle may occur on rare occasions (as with other mammals), but remains undemonstrated and more importantly, biologically implausible at any significant level. There is no credible evidence that badger vaccination can assist either. Despite this, new vaccination schemes have recently been awarded Defra contracts (reported by Vet Time here). 

Worryingly Angela Eagle seems to think that badger vaccination had been embraced by the wildlife community. Has she been misinformed by her staff? 

And most worrying of all, any decisions on culling might yet be placed at the whim of the Chief Veterinary Officer or her Deputy without broader scrutiny. This was the plan for targeted culling that Labour blocked against entrenched staff wishes. Unless Eagle is careful, a method to allow Defra staff to ‘cull at will’ may be endorsed. This would be an effective U-turn on Labour’s pre-election manifesto pledge and could be legally challenged.

Defra Civil Servants have continued to rely for advice on a single group of scientists who have supported their own decisions and publications around culling for over twenty years. Those scientists and Civil Servants are now strongly linked together in an ineffective policy that they are afraid to admit was based on flawed science and has failed. They have no scientific answers at all. They have gone to ground, refusing to engage with any of the independent published scientists to find a robust way forward.

So whilst some might believe from media postings that badger culling has been pushed onto the back burner for now, it is still a Defra intention for the Labour government. It could easily be back in England, Wales and across Ireland in 2027 (or earlier) if current subterfuge persists.

With an election in Wales due in early May, and polls suggesting a battle for victory between Reform and Plaid Cymru, Welsh badgers could be the losers. Reform support targeted culling in their 2026 manifesto. Whilst Plaid Cymru do not mention it in their manifesto, they have previously argued for “scientifically validated” culling and control methods to manage infected wildlife populations. 

Meanwhile in Ireland, a cross-border partnership with DAERA and DAFM aims to undertake a two year Test, Vaccinate or Remove (TVR) programme on badgers. This is despite a recent report on a large scale study in Northern Ireland that could demonstrate no evidence of any clear bTB cattle benefit from TVR in a high-density badger area.

The decision making on all these policies will be by the same scientists and Civil Servants who have been calling the shots and unwilling to accept that they could have been giving misleading advice for years. Badger culling has not yet been safely consigned to the history books where it belongs.

Without proper independent consultation for the strategy refresh, this was always likely to be the outcome. Defra has been able to get around the Labour manifesto pledge relatively easily. It seems that the situation will remain as long as the same Defra staff are allowed to hide away and cover up a litany of errors. They are remaining unaccountable and have ignored Professor Mark Brewer’s strongest suggestion that a “proper investigation be conducted to establish an agreed position involving all parties” (see here).