Our Position © Close Up Badger shot We are firmly opposed to the badger cull and will not allowing badger culling on our land – badgers are not the problem We agree with the strong scientific evidence that culling badgers will make no meaningful contribution to the management of bovine TB and may even be counterproductive to the reduction of bovine TB (see the ‘Evidence and References’ section for more information about this). We are very conscious of the hardship that bovine TB causes the farming community, with an increasing number of cattle contracting this awful disease each year. We understand the need for action and have concluded, from our knowledge of previous scientific cull trials, that in the short-term a nationally coordinated and sustained programme of badger vaccination, improved biosecurity measures and improved testing and control of cattle movement would be the best means of tackling the disease. We believe that, in the longer term, the development and deployment of a cattle vaccine is central to the future of bovine TB disease control. A clear process has been set out by the EU for field testing and licensing a cattle vaccine and we urge the UK Government to commit fully to this. We believe that the effective application of these short and long-term measures when taken together would avoid the need for the large scale culling of one of our native mammals, most of which will be disease-free. The Wildlife Trusts nationally call on the Government to: Reduce cattle-to-cattle transmission of bovine TB – the major cause of the infection – by tightening movement controls on cattle further Accelerate research into cattle vaccination Improve testing regimes for cattle Invest in more research into better techniques for early detection of TB in cattle Ensure higher standards of biosecurity on farms and link this to subsidy payments © Badger Badgers and bTB Updates The Government have consulted on a proposal to extend the badger cull in to areas such as Sheffield and Rotherham. Go back to the Badger Campaign