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Effects of culling on badger abundance: implications for tuberculosis
control
Journal
Journal of Zoology
Volume 274 Issue 1,Pages28-37 Published Online: 4Jul2007
Authors
R. Woodroffe 1,2 , P. Gilks 3 , W. T. Johnston 3 , A.
M. Le Fevre 3
* , D. R. Cox 2,4 , C. A. Donnelly 2,3 , F. J. Bourne 2 , C. L.
Cheeseman 5 , G. Gettinby 2,6 , J. P. McInerney 2 & W. I. Morrison 2,7
1 Department of Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology, University of
California, Davis, CA, USA
2 Independent Scientific Group on Cattle
TB, c/o Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, London, UK
3
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine,
Imperial College London, London, UK
4 Nuffield College, Oxford, UK
5 Central Science Laboratory, Sand Hutton, York, UK
6 Department of
Statistics and Modelling Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
7 Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Royal (Dick) School of
Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
Abstract
Culling is often considered as a tool for controlling
wildlife diseases that can also infect people or livestock. Culling
European badgers Meles meles can cause both positive and negative effects
on the incidence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.
One factor
likely to influence the outcome of different badger-culling strategies for
cattle TB is the reduction in badger population density achieved. However,
this reduction is difficult to measure because badgers, being nocturnal
and fossorial, are difficult to count.
Here, we use indices of badger
abundance to measure the population impacts of two culling strategies
tested in Britain. The densities of badger setts and latrines recorded
before culling were correlated with the densities of badgers captured on
initial culls, suggesting that both were indices of actual badger
abundance.
Widespread 'proactive' culling was associated with a 73%
reduction in the density of badger latrines, a 69% reduction in the
density of active burrows and a 73% reduction in the density of
road-killed badgers. This population reduction was achieved by a
coordinated effort entailing widespread and repeated trapping over several
years.
However, this strategy caused only modest reductions in cattle
TB incidence in culled areas and elevated incidence in neighbouring
unculled areas. Localized 'reactive' culling caused a 26% reduction in
latrine density, a 32% reduction in active burrow density and a 10%
reduction in the density of road-killed badgers, but apparently increased
the incidence of cattle TB.
These results indicate that the
relationship between badger population reduction and TB transmission to
cattle is strongly non-linear, probably because culling prompts changes in
badger behaviour that influence transmission rates.
These findings
raise serious questions about the capacity of badger culling to contribute
to the control of cattle TB in Britain.
Keywords
badger • culling • Meles meles • Mycobacterium bovis
• perturbation • randomized badger-culling trial • tuberculosis •
wildlife disease
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