Badger culls 'not cost-effective'
10 February 2010 - BBC News
Badger culls are unlikely to be a cost-effective way of controlling bovine
TB in cattle, a report warns. The Imperial College London and
Zoological Society of London report comes
ahead of a controversial cull in west Wales planned for later this year. The report, which studied the aftermath of cull trials in England, claims the
benefits "disappear" after four years.
The report, commissioned by DEFRA, says benefits from widespread badger culling are not sustained
three-and-a-half years after a cull has ended. It also says "patchy," and "unco-ordinated circumstances" are highly likely
to increase rather than reduce incidences of bovine TB in cattle. The report focuses on the Krebbs trials, which took place in England between
1998 and 2005. It questions if the financial benefit seen after culling is
worthwhile.
Prof Christl Donnelly, senior author of the study from
Imperial College London, said: "Bovine TB is a big problem in Britain and the disease can
profoundly affect farmers' livelihoods. We know that it is transmitted between cattle and badgers, so the randomised
badger culling trial was set up to find out if culling badgers would help
control the spread of the disease. There has been some controversy over badger culling as a bovine TB control
method and it has been unpopular with the general public. Although badger culling reduced cattle bovine TB during the trial and
immediately thereafter, our new study shows that the beneficial effects are not
sustained, disappearing four years post-cull."
Prof Donnelly said the research also suggested the savings farmers and the
government would make by reducing bovine TB infections in cattle were two or
three times less than the cost of repeated badger culls as undertaken in the
trial. "This is not a cost-effective contribution to preventing bovine TB
infections in cattle," added
Prof Donnelly.
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