Letter: Disease needs tackling, not a question of badger eradication
In response to Chris Cooke in his June 11 letter, I agree that there is no silver bullet over bovine TB but respectfully point out that the science has long moved on.
In 2011 experts, including Professor Lord Krebs, met to review the science-base generated from the Randomised Badger Culling Trials, RBCT.
They concluded that "proactive badger culling as conducted in the trial resulted in an overall beneficial effect".
Mr Cooke talks about badger culling making "no meaningful contribution" but the most up-to-date scientific advice available shows that a programme that tackles TB on all fronts at the same time, including in wildlife, will significantly reduce the problem.
Mr Cooke blames weaknesses in cattle testing regimes, however, in recent years we have seen further tightening of cattle movement controls and testing on our farms.
Despite this we continue to see a rise in TB levels, this is not down to farming practices but due to the disease reservoir in wildlife.
The same 2011 scientific meeting also recognised that farm controls "could not be fully efficient without effective measures to address transmission between badgers and cattle". If the pilots show that a targeted cull can be carried out humanely, safely and effectively by trained professionals under licence, we may see roll out to other areas where TB is endemic and needs to be tackled urgently.
Let's be clear though this is all about disease control, not badger eradication.
We all want to see healthy wildlife and healthy cattle and more information is available at www.tbfreeengland.co.uk
John Mercer
NFU Regional Director
Telford
