Thursday, July 21, 2022
Another Tory government failure
The Guardian reports that scientists, vets and naturalists are calling for a moratorium on the badger cull in the light of evidence that they say shows nine years of killing badgers has failed to reduce bovine TB in cattle:
The culling of legally protected badgers to reduce cattle TB enters its 10th season this summer, despite the publication of a scientific paper in the journal Veterinary Record earlier this year which concluded that culling had no significant impact on bTB in cattle herds. The paper sparked a row over its methodology, which the government says was flawed, but its supporters say it shows the practice should be ended.
In an open letter to the prime minister and the environment secretary, experts including Jane Goodall, Prof Andrew Knight and Prof Ranald Munro, who served on the government’s independent scientific panel examining the efficacy and humaneness of culling, warned that new culling licences could target 25,000 badgers in addition to more than 175,000 killed under licence since the controversial policy began in 2013.
Although the government pledged in 2020 to phase out badger culling in favour of cattle and badger vaccination, better cattle TB tests and enhanced biosecurity measures on farms, new licences issued this summer will continue to see badgers shot dead until 2025.
The paper says that the peer-reviewed Vet Record paper by the independent ecologist Tom Langton and the vets Iain McGill and Mark Jones analysed government data on bovine TB in cattle herds within the “high risk” area of England over 2010-2020 and found that in nine out 10 counties, bTB incidence peaked and began to fall before badger culling commenced.
In contrast, DEFRA's own analysis was not peer-reviewed, and, as they subsequently admitted, was based on “incorrect calculations”. Isn't it about time they accepted that their policy of mass slaughter of a protected species is flawed and ineffective, instead of doubling down like this?
The culling of legally protected badgers to reduce cattle TB enters its 10th season this summer, despite the publication of a scientific paper in the journal Veterinary Record earlier this year which concluded that culling had no significant impact on bTB in cattle herds. The paper sparked a row over its methodology, which the government says was flawed, but its supporters say it shows the practice should be ended.
In an open letter to the prime minister and the environment secretary, experts including Jane Goodall, Prof Andrew Knight and Prof Ranald Munro, who served on the government’s independent scientific panel examining the efficacy and humaneness of culling, warned that new culling licences could target 25,000 badgers in addition to more than 175,000 killed under licence since the controversial policy began in 2013.
Although the government pledged in 2020 to phase out badger culling in favour of cattle and badger vaccination, better cattle TB tests and enhanced biosecurity measures on farms, new licences issued this summer will continue to see badgers shot dead until 2025.
The paper says that the peer-reviewed Vet Record paper by the independent ecologist Tom Langton and the vets Iain McGill and Mark Jones analysed government data on bovine TB in cattle herds within the “high risk” area of England over 2010-2020 and found that in nine out 10 counties, bTB incidence peaked and began to fall before badger culling commenced.
In contrast, DEFRA's own analysis was not peer-reviewed, and, as they subsequently admitted, was based on “incorrect calculations”. Isn't it about time they accepted that their policy of mass slaughter of a protected species is flawed and ineffective, instead of doubling down like this?
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