• Badger protection legislation

In 1971 a dead badger infected with bovine TB (bTB) was discovered on a farm that had suffered a bTB outbreak in its cattle herd and this seemed to give backing to the theory that badgers are a cause of TB in cattle.

Over the intervening years, a number of different measures have been tried to control the disease in cattle by culling badgers. None of these was entirely successful. This is why we have now developed a much broader strategy to control cattle TB. This includes, among other things, research into how the disease is spread, development of a vaccine, and possible improvements to the testing and slaughter programme, but also trying to find out, in a scientific way, how badgers affect the disease in cattle.

This page concentrates on what has been tried in the past in relation to controlling the reservoir of bTB in the GB badger population.

The Badger Act of 1973 protected badgers from being persecuted but also allowed the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to issue licences to individuals to kill badgers to prevent the spread of disease.

Gassing

By 1975 there were concerns about the lack of controls on who could kill badgers, so MAFF decided that only its own staff, or people under its control, would be able to cull badgers to stop the spread of TB. Gassing was the method used. This was permitted under The Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act 1975.

Zuckerman review

Many people were not convinced that badgers spread the disease and felt that gassing was an inhumane way of controlling badgers, so, in 1980, Lord Zuckerman was asked to review the problem. Gassing operations stopped at the start of the review.

Zuckerman concluded that badgers were probably a significant source of bTB infection and that the high density and close proximity of cattle and badgers in parts of south west England made spread of the disease easy. Because the disease seemed to have spread since controls stopped at the start of the review, he advised that control measures should start again. As gassing was considered inhumane, cage trapping, followed by shooting, became the method of killing badgers.

Clean ring strategy

Zuckerman advised that areas should be cleared of infected badgers and kept clear, so from 1982 to 1985 a ‘clean ring’ strategy applied. Under this strategy, social groups of badgers on and around the breakdown farm were identified, trapped and a sample of carcases from these groups were examined. Where infection was found, all badgers in the social group were removed. The ring extended out until groups with uninfected badgers were found. Trapping took place in the cleared area for a further six months to keep the area clean.

Dunnet review

Zuckerman had recommended a further review in 3 years time. This was conducted by Professor Dunnet in 1986, who concluded that some form of badger control was unavoidable. He recommended the use of an Interim Strategy until there was:

a) sufficient data from research and badger removal operations for a further substantive review, and

b) development of a reliable live diagnostic test for bTB in badgers.

Interim strategy

This policy was introduced in 1986 and involved the removal and culling of badgers only from farms where a TB incident had been confirmed and where, following investigation, it was thought that badgers were the most likely cause of the disease.

During the operation of the interim strategy, the annual incidence of bTB has increased in South-West England and has occurred in other areas with no recent history of infection, including the West Midlands and South Wales.

Meanwhile a trial of a live badger diagnostic test was conducted between 1994 and 1996 but was stopped because of the poor sensitivity of the test and problems with the trial.

Because of the continued increase in TB in cattle, it was clear by 1996 that the interim strategy was not working so the government asked Professor John Krebs to carry out a further review.

Badgers were first given protection under the Badgers Act 1973 and badger setts under the Badgers Act 1991. The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 consolidated the earlier legislation.

Summary of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992

The 1992 Act makes it an offence to: 1. kill, injure or take a badger 2. cruelly ill-treat any badger 3. interfere with a badger sett

Licensing Powers

Under the 1992 Act, licences may be issued by the Agricultural Departments (in England, this is Defra, in Wales, the National Assembly for Wales Agriculture Department and in Scotland, the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD)) for the following purposes;

a) to interfere with badger setts for the purpose of:

1. any agricultural or forestry operation;
2. any operation to maintain or improve any existing watercourse or drainage works, or to construct new works required for the drainage of land, including works of defence against seawater or tidal water;
3. controlling foxes in order to protect livestock and penned game.

b) to kill or take badgers or to interfere with their setts for the purpose of;

1. preventing serious damage to land, crops, poultry or any other form of property;
2. preventing the spread of disease.

Assessing Licence Applications

In England and Wales, applications for a licence are assessed by the Rural Development Service (RDS). In Scotland, SEERAD Area Offices and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) assess licence applications. This process involves a site visit and discussion with the applicant. These organisations will report to the relevant Animal Health Divisional Office (AHDO) in England and the Agricultural Departments in Wales and Scotland, which then determine the application.

Licences for the purpose of preventing damage will be issued where the relevant bodies are satisfied that:

1. the level of damage is sufficiently serious to justify the issue of a licence;
2. other methods of control have been shown to be ineffective or impractical and not just difficult to implement;
3. licensed action will be successful in reducing any damage that might be being caused.

Although there is no provision for a closed season under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, the badger breeding season is taken into account when determining licence applications.

Additional Licensing Authorities

English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and SNH, are also licensing authorities under the 1992 Act. They are responsible for the issue of licences for the following purposes:

1. scientific or educational purposes for the conservation of badgers;
2. any zoological gardens or collection;
3. ringing or marking badgers;
4. any developments as defined in S.55(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990;
5. preservation, or archaeological investigation, of a monument scheduled under S.1 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Area Act 1970;
6. investigating whether an offence has been committed or gathering evidence in connection with any proceedings before any Court;
7. controlling foxes in order to protect released game or wildlife.

This is a summary only. The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 should be referred to for the exact wording.

The association between bovine TB (bTB) in cattle and badgers has been a complex and contentious issue for many years. This page details the most recent developments in relation to controlling the reservoir of bTB in the GB badger population.

Do badgers give TB to cattle?

Although both badgers and cattle have been shown to carry bTB there has been much debate around the transmission of the disease between the two species.

In November 1996, Professor John Krebs and the Independent Review Team began a scientific review on behalf of the Government into the link between bTB and badgers. The Executive Summary of the Group's findings and recommendations is available on the Defra website.

The Krebs group concluded that that “the sum of evidence strongly supports the view that, in Britain, badgers are a significant source of infection in cattle”. The group recognised, however, that scientific data were lacking and recommended that an experiment, the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), be set up to establish the effect of culling badgers on TB in cattle.

Badger culling in the RBCT has been completed, with some surveying work continuing into 2006. In October 2005, the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), who designed the trial, published updated interim analysis (144 KB) on reactive culling data. In December 2005, the ISG published an interim report on the proactive culling element of the trial. The Group’s final report will be published in early 2007.

Public consultation

In December 2005, the Government announced new measures to tackle bTB in England. One of these measures was a public consultation on the culling of badgers for the control of bTB. The consultation, which ran from 15 December 2005 – 10 March 2006, aimed to explain the issues and involve the wider public in the process to decide whether or not to cull badgers and the methods by which this could be done as part of the overall approach to control the spread of bTB in England in cattle.

• The public consultation closed on 10 March 2006. The consultation documents are still available to view online after this date.