Our position on badgers and bovine TB
A badger emerges from his sett
© NTPL/NaturePL/Colin Seddon
Latest update 21.02.2012 11:47
Patrick Begg, Rural Enterprise Director at the National Trust, said:
"We won't stand in the way of badger cull trials providing they’re carried out in a scientifically sound and robust way; and so that we can learn about their effectiveness in reducing TB in cattle.
Even if these trials proved to be successful it is likely to be difficult to repeat them on a widespread basis, so we are focussing our effort on vaccination. We are glad to hear that the Government will be providing funding to support badger vaccination. The priority however should be dealing with TB passing directly between cattle, as this is the cause of 80% of the disease in cattle.”
Background information:
Bovine TB is a serious problem that needs urgent attention.
All the evidence points to the need for a multi-pronged approach, and that the top priority is to stop the spread of the disease between cattle. There is also a need to address the reservoir of bovine TB in badger populations, a cause of infections in some cattle herds.
In a recent major trial funded by DEFRA vaccination of badgers greatly reduced the disease status of the population and indicated that it could be a powerful tool in reducing badger-cattle transmission of bTB. As a result we have launched a vaccination programme at Killerton, one of our major estates in Devon.
We believe that more needs to be made of the role vaccination of badgers can play in reducing badger-cattle transmission. Our pilot of this method at Killerton will show the potential for more widespread use of vaccination in reducing the incidence of the disease amongst badger populations.
Research also shows that, in the right circumstances, culling badgers can help reduce the incidence of herd breakdowns due to bTB. In these circumstances we do not object to culling badgers.