The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Defra, has announced that the government will be proceeding with a badger cull in England. They reiterated the government’s determination to continue with plans after Wales shunned culling badgers and decided to go with a vaccination programme instead.

Defra made it clear that the Welsh decision had no effect on its plans to commence pilot badger culls in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset this autumn.

Defra went on to defend the decision to use a cull, which is an attempt to control TB in wildlife, stating that vaccination alone is not sufficient to tackle bovine TB.

A Defra spokesperson said: “There are limitations on the widespread use of the injectable badger vaccine and it doesn’t stop already infected badgers spreading TB.

“Culling, carried out in the right way, will more quickly and effectively reduce TB in cattle than vaccination alone.”

The spokesperson went on to say that Defra was investigating millions in the development of more usable vaccines for badgers and cattle, although he was quick to state that these are still ‘years away’.

He said: “We must take effective action now to stop bovine TB devastating our farmers and rural communities.”

Defra have argued that, while there is evidence that immunity to TB can be increased within badger populations using vaccinations, there is ‘no direct evidence’ of the effect badger vaccination has on TB in cattle.

John Royle, the NFU chief farm policy adviser, said that the decision taken by officials in Wales makes no difference to the English plan for a cull. If the initial culls are successful then they will be extended to up to 10 more areas next year.

Groups of farmers in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset are currently putting together applications for cull licences to submit to Natural England.

Mr Royle spoke to the Farmers Guardian saying: “The Welsh policy will cost millions of pounds for no real benefit. Vaccination on its own is not as quick or effective as culling and we have no idea how effective it might be in tackling the disease in cattle. The English approach, in contrast, is a genuinely comprehensive package of measures that includes all the tools available to tackle the disease.”

Joanne Pugh, the assistant director of the National Beef Association said that her organisation shared the ‘huge disappointment of Welsh farmers.

Speaking to the Farmers Guardian she went on to say: “The only consolation is that the English pilot is going ahead and will show politicians that farmers are able to undertake a cull and that it an effective and essential tool within the battle against TB. Once the English cull programme is successfully underway we feel there will be even more pressure on Wales to reconsider its stance and finally give its farmers a real solution to the TB crisis.”

The courts will prove to be the biggest threat to the English cull as The Badger Trust has submitted an application for a high High Court Judicial Review of the Defra policy.

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Picture: Sam Getliffe