While scientists warn culls could spread bTB

The Badger Trust has renewed its appeal to end the badger cull beginning imminently in South-West England.

The trial culls are to start in Gloucestershire and Somerset, in order to help save cattle from bovine tuberculosis (bTB), which is spread by badgers. Up to 100,000 badgers are likely to be killed within the next few years if culls go ahead.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has released figures in its monthly bTB briefing showing a 30 per cent fall in bTB in the past 12 months - mostly as a result of increased testing.

Badger Trust Chairman, David Williams, said: "DEFRA's conclusion that the improved results are down to better testing are very telling.

"Tucked away in a dull routine report, it admits that, way back in 2007, the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) got it right when it said, after 10 years of research, that the way to bring the spread of bTB under control was not by killing badgers, but by toughening up cattle control measures."

The cull has faced criticism, protests and legal battles in previous weeks, and, a group of 30 scientists have recently written a letter calling on ministers to halt the plans.

The letter said: "As scientists with expertise in managing wildlife and wildlife diseases, we believe the complexities of TB transmission mean that licensed culling risks increasing cattle TB rather than reducing it."

Nine leading vets have also written an open letter to DEFRA and Natural England warning that the cull "will inevitably result in the targeting of many pregnant sows and, if culling extends towards the end of the open season, could result in the shooting of lactating sows, leading to the starvation of dependent cubs".