cattle | Common News Update

The UK government's badger cull has had mixed effects on the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, a new study reports.A team found the incidence of cattle TB had fallen in two areas where badgers had been culled and slightly increased in a third area.Farming groups claim the figures demonstrate badger culls are working.But researchers are more cautious about the results, which have been published in the journal Scientific ReportsGloucestershire saw a 66% fall in incidence of cattle TB and Somerset saw a 36% drop over the period between 2013 and 2017. Dorset, the third badger culling zone, saw a 10% increase, which the report's authors say is not statistically significant, in cattle TB from 2015 to 2017.Co-author Christl Donnelly from Oxford Universit...

An independent scientific review has said that badger culling can have a "modest" effect in reducing cattle TB.But it adds that the policy would lead to more than 40,000 badgers being culled a year.The report says that such high levels of culling may not be publicly acceptable.The authors urge the government to accelerate the development of non-lethal controls, such as vaccination.The findings were published in a review led by Prof Sir Charles Godfray of Oxford University.But one expert said the report had little to say about the effectiveness of the current badger culls.The report was commissioned by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in February. He asked an independent group of scientist...

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Badger culls have varying impacts on cattle TB

Badger culling has 'modest' effect in cutting cattle TB