Friday, May 12, 2023
Report claims badger cull based on deeply flawed science
The Independent reports on a damning study that claims government experts have based the UK’s badger cull on a “confused and flawed” interpretation of the science.
The paper says that the study has called for an immediate rethink of the policy, after officials adopted an “ineffective and misguided approach” to tackling tuberculosis in dairy cows, leading to a policy that is “a self-perpetuating failure”:
The authors of the new report, who include biologist and veteran campaigner Tom Langton and Paul Torgerson, a professor of veterinary epidemiology, as well as badger researchers, accuse the government of “consistently misrepresenting” some of the science.
The study accuses the Animal and Plant Health Agency of reverting to 1980s “old thinking” that badgers are responsible for most bTB outbreaks,” which defies the available evidence and is an anathema to any correct application of modern disease epidemiology”.
“The APHA (and by extension the government)’s interpretation of the available evidence in relation to bTB epidemiology is confused and flawed,” it says.
“This review finds that there has been a compounding accumulation of assumption and error over the last decade.”
The report concludes the cull is “a self-perpetuating failure”.
It claims that a model by APHA of culling of badgers near Penrith, Cumbria, “backfired so badly that the disease is cropping up in and around land where badgers have been systematically eliminated since 2018”.
The report authors also criticise the use of whole-genome sequencing of the bacteria behind the disease, using artificial intelligence to estimate the chances of transmission between cows and wildlife.
The Badger Trust estimates that at least 33,627 badgers were killed last year to try to eradicate the disease, bringing the total to a total of 210,555 since the cull began in 2013 – meaning up to half of Britain’s badger population has been killed.
Surely, it is time to end the slaughter of this valuable and protected animal and use scientifically proven methods of tackling BTb instead.
The paper says that the study has called for an immediate rethink of the policy, after officials adopted an “ineffective and misguided approach” to tackling tuberculosis in dairy cows, leading to a policy that is “a self-perpetuating failure”:
The authors of the new report, who include biologist and veteran campaigner Tom Langton and Paul Torgerson, a professor of veterinary epidemiology, as well as badger researchers, accuse the government of “consistently misrepresenting” some of the science.
The study accuses the Animal and Plant Health Agency of reverting to 1980s “old thinking” that badgers are responsible for most bTB outbreaks,” which defies the available evidence and is an anathema to any correct application of modern disease epidemiology”.
“The APHA (and by extension the government)’s interpretation of the available evidence in relation to bTB epidemiology is confused and flawed,” it says.
“This review finds that there has been a compounding accumulation of assumption and error over the last decade.”
The report concludes the cull is “a self-perpetuating failure”.
It claims that a model by APHA of culling of badgers near Penrith, Cumbria, “backfired so badly that the disease is cropping up in and around land where badgers have been systematically eliminated since 2018”.
The report authors also criticise the use of whole-genome sequencing of the bacteria behind the disease, using artificial intelligence to estimate the chances of transmission between cows and wildlife.
The Badger Trust estimates that at least 33,627 badgers were killed last year to try to eradicate the disease, bringing the total to a total of 210,555 since the cull began in 2013 – meaning up to half of Britain’s badger population has been killed.
Surely, it is time to end the slaughter of this valuable and protected animal and use scientifically proven methods of tackling BTb instead.
