Articles and scientific reports

In Reverse Chronological order:

BOVINE TB AND BADGERS UPDATE NOV 2023
A review of research papers and preprints relating to the controversial culling of badgers and inadequacies of cattle testing for bovine TB. 30 minute video by Tom Langton.


Pre-print, under review at Nature Science Reports: Absence of effects of widespread badger culling on tuberculosis in cattle, by Paul Torgerson, Sonja Hartnack, Philipp Rasmusen, Fraser Lewis, Tom Langton, Version 2 posted 12 May 2023.

Bovine TB and Badgers: a weakened link, by Tom Langton, British Wildlife, Volume 34, Number 6, pg 423-428, May 2023.

 


New report blasts ‘weak science and huge supposition’ behind bTB policy,
Vet Times, 11th May 2023, by Allister Webb.

Government’s badger cull plan ‘deeply flawed’, damning report warns, The Independent, 10th May, 2023, by Jane Dalton.

A bovine tuberculosis policy conundrum in 2023On the scientific evidence relating to the Animal and Plant Health Agency/DEFRA policy concept for ‘Epidemiological’ badger culling. An Independent report by researchers and veterinarians to DEFRA and the UK Parliament, APRIL 2023, Griffiths, L., Griffiths, M., Jones, B., Jones, M., Langton, T.E.S., Rendle, M., Torgerson, P., April 2023.

Government adds expansive third prong to the badger cull, while claiming a ‘phase out’, theCanary, 31 March 2023, by Tracey Keeling. 

Badger cull study ‘was watered down by top civil servant’ over issue of whether badger cull stopped cattle catching TB, The Daily Mail, August 30 2022, by Liz Hull.

Calls to cut bTB badger culling as species at ‘extinction risk’, Vet Times, August 19th 2022.

Government under fire for trying to justify badger cull at international conference, theCanary 14th August 2022, by Tracey Keeling.

UK badger culling row set to go transatlantic,  Vet Times, August 12 2022, by Allister Webb.

Reaction to court of appeal decision, 26.07.2022, interview with Tom Langton

How to win my vote, Spectator magazine issue: 4 June 2022, by Rod Liddle.

Farming Today, interview with CVO Christine Middlesmiss, 26 May 2022.

Badger Culling to Control bovine TB. (Dealing with Defra’s correction to their rebuttal data). Letter in Vet Record by Tom Langton, Mark Jones and Iain McGill, 21 May, 2022.

Why were you Wicked to Badgers?
Book Review:  A History of Uncertainty – Bovine Tuberculosis in Britain 1850 to the Present,  Peter J Atkins, 2016, Winchester University Press, by Tom Langton, 17.05.2022.

Tory government admits to using bogus data in row over badger cull study, theCanary, 16th May 2022, by Tracey Keeling.

Is it time to kill the badger cull?
According to new research, the badger cull isn’t working. Wildlife journalist
James Fair takes a look at the science. BBC Wildlife Magazine by James Fair, 25.04.2022.

Suzanne Jarvis, Editor-in-Chief, Responds (to criticism of peer review process of Langton et al.), Vet Record 14.04.2022.

Badger Culling to Control Bovine TB, letter in Vet record by Jane Gibbens, with response from Thomas ES Langton, Mark W Jones & Iain McGill, 14.04.2022.

Badger culling to control bovine TB, letter in Vet Record, (Authors response to Defra’s rebuttal of Langton et al.). Thomas ES Langton, Mark W Jones & Iain McGill. 2nd April 2022.

New study finds no link between badger cull and decrease in bTB, Joshua Silverwood, Vet Times, 21 March 2022.

Christine Middlemiss and Gideon Henderson letter to Vet record 19th March 2022.

What is the role of badger culling as a control measure for bovine TB?,
Editorial in Vet Record by Paul R Torgerson, 19 March 2022.

New peer-reviewed scientific paper published March 18 2022:
Langton TES, Jones MW, McGill I. 2022. Analysis of the impacts of badger culling and cattle controls on bovine tuberculosis in cattle in the high-risk area of England, 2009–2020. Vet Rec 2022;e1384.

Modelling killed the badgers, by Tom Langton, 18th January 2021. Ecologist.

Is DIVA bovine TB test a breakthrough?, by Tom Langton, 9th September 2020. Ecologist

Out of the Woods?, by James Fair, article in BBC Wildlife, Vol 38.
BBC Wildlife vol 38, Spring 2020.

Badger Meddling, by Tom Langton, 5th November 2019. Ecologist.
 
Guest blog – Sorry Tony, you cannot spin this into a good news story for Natural England, by Dominic Woodfield, on Mark Avery’s blog, 13.09.2019.

Badger Culling and Bovine TB in Cattle:A Re-evaluation of Proactive Culling Benefit in the Randomized Badger Culling Trials, by Tom Langton, Journal of Dairy and Veterinary Science, May 23rd 2019.

Does the badger cull spell trouble for ground-nesting birds? by James Fair, Ends Report, 30 May 2019.
Read here

The badger cull policy is not evidence based’, by Tom Langton. Veterinary Record Vol 184 No 23, 715. And response to replies subsequent issues.

Threat to badger culls across England as legal challenge mounted by campaigner, by Abi Kay, Farmers Guardian, 17 May 2019. – No longer available online.

Natural England’s call for badger cull evidence an ‘absolute nightmare’, by Rachel Salvidge, Ends Report, 13.05.2019.
Read here

Farmers are set ‘impossible task’ over risk to birds from badger cull, by Helena Horton, The Sunday Telegraph, 12.05.2019.
Read here

Natural England censured by the High Court, by James Fair, BBC Wildlife, May 2019.
Read here

Badgers, bTB and SSSIs, by Sue Everett, British Wildlife, April 2019.
Read here

Judge says Natural England failed to assess impacts of badger cull on birds in SSSIs, by Rachel Salvidge, 15.03.2019. 

Read here

A bovine TB black-and-whitewash?, An in-depth analysis of Sir Godfray’s Bovine TB Strategy Review, by Tom Langton, 4th December 2018. Ecologist.

Guest blog for Mark Avery – NE, Badgers and Judgement, by Dominic Woodfield, 24.09.2018.

Judicial review – a blunt tool for badger protection, by Carol Day, Wildlife Link, August 2018.
 
Guest blog for Mark Avery – Whither Now for State Nature Conservation? by Dominic Woodfield, 09.07.2018.
 
Government faces High Court challenge over ‘disastrous’ badger cull, in landmark case, by Jane Dalton, 08.07.2018.
 
As the state is dismantled, who will save Britain’s wildlife? by George Monbiot, 04.07.2018.

 

Article in BBC Wildlife magazine, by James Fair, July 2018. Campaigners have taken out a Judicial Review against Natural England, which questions the processes that the public body followed in relation to the badger cull. 

Read 1 Read 2 

Lies, damned lies and twisted statistics – fake science set to kill 100,000 English badgers, by Tom Langton, 13th April 2017. Ecologist.

Bovine TB summit: science based policy, or policy-based science?, by Tom Langton,  7th April 2017. Ecologist.

Bovine TB Part II: rotten data, dodgy science, bad politics, by Tom Langton, 18th May 2016. Ecologist.

Dodgy data, bad science, rotten politics: why the badger cull is wrong and stupid, by Tom Langton, 28th April 2016. Ecologist