Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of badger culling on the control of bovine TB.

The Chief Veterinary Officer’s advice on the outcome of 2017 cull indicates that industry-led culling can deliver the level of effectiveness required to be confident of achieving bovine TB disease control benefits.

A peer-reviewed scientific study showed a significant reduction in TB breakdowns after two years of badger control in the first two cull areas. Culling was associated with 21% reduction in TB incidence in the Somerset cull area and a 58% reduction in the Gloucestershire cull area. The paper is available at the following link:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.3254

Assessments of the effectiveness of all badger culls undertaken from 2013 to 2017 have been published and can be found on GOV.UK at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb-controlling-the-risk-of-bovine-tb-from-badgers