Previous report - May 2007: The cull may be on again. It could start within weeks after the completion of a Government report into the role that badgers play in spreading the infectious disease bovine tuberculosis among cattle. An end to the moratorium on licences to kill badgers is now expected to provoke ferocious opposition from animal welfare groups, who insist it is not necessary because the spread of the disease is due to bad husbandry by farmers, not badgers.

The Government research, by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG), began in 1998 and was accompanied by the moratorium on licences. However, the final report, which ministers will receive later this month, is expected to claim that culling badgers can be an effective means of controlling the disease. Defra officials have already indicated to industry figures that following its publication they would struggle to justify continuing the moratorium.

This report ignores the earlier research from the Krebs Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), also confirms that killing badgers increases bovine TB in badger populations, probably by disrupting badgers’ otherwise stable social order and by increasing the amount of contact that badgers have with cattle. This finding means that badger culling has no place in any science-based strategy to control bovine TB.  But that valuable research has now been swept under the carpet - why?

Tony Blair and David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, have been involved in discussions about lifting the moratorium. The Cabinet will make the final decision.

TB is quickly spreading along the "cattle belt", which runs from Cornwall, up the west of the country, to Cheshire. Most outbreaks have been in the southwest and the West Midlands, but there have been others in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Sussex and Wales.

There were 788 new suspected outbreaks in January and February compared with 703 in the same period of last year. There are reports of the disease spreading to domestic cats, which has provoked fears that this could lead to infections among humans.

Outbreaks have caused many farmers to leave the dairy industry, while some desperate farmers are carrying out illegal culls. Prior to 1998 farmers were allowed to cull the animals, under licences issued in line with the 1973 Badgers Act. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) claims that before the ban, TB in dairy herds was almost non-existent, but its introduction allowed the disease to spread.

Although the ISG report is expected to say that removing badgers can play a positive role in tackling the disease, it will also warn of the possible dangers of perturbation, where badgers that escape the cull relocate elsewhere and help to spread the disease.

This will give farmers two options: to apply for a licence to cull in a large area of more than 116 square miles, where research suggests the benefits of culling outweigh the effects of perturbation, or to demand small, targeted culls, in areas which are bordered by rivers, railways or coastlines.

Richard Haddock, the union's south-west regional chairman, said: "The hints we're getting are that there will be limited licences issued. If they allow us targeted culls against the sick setts in the hot spots, then in two years, we will be on top of it."

Richard Yarnell, the chief executive of the Badger Trust, said the problem could only be dealt with by stopping the disease spreading between cattle. "Ours is not just a sentimental argument," he said. "It is based on sound science, not just because badgers are cute, furry animals. Farmers focus on the badgers because they then don't have to face up to the fact that their own industry is responsible for spreading the disease."

Bovine TB: sustainable solutions from the Badger Trust      

Badgers were implicated in the spread of bovine TB back in the 1970's.  In 1971 a dead badger infected with TB was found on a Gloucestershire farm where the cattle had just been discovered to have TB. Further investigations by MAFF showed that the levels of TB in badgers were higher than for other wildlife species. This was the start of "badgers as the source of bovine TB" story.

In 1996 a scientific review was initiated by the Government resulting in the Krebs report published in December 1997. The Krebs report is a series of government sponsored experiments during which more than 30,000 badgers were culled despite their legally-protected status. The scale of the operation has angered conservationists, who have called for a better understanding of badger behaviour rather than their wholesale destruction.

The main recommendations of the report can be broadly summarised as:

1) Major research is needed to achieve better understanding of the causes of TB, routes of transmission and the role of other wildlife as possible reservoir species. Plus developing strategies to reduce outbreaks.

2) Improving husbandry methods to reduce contact between cattle and badgers.

3) Development of a cattle vaccine against TB as the best long-term option to control TB.

4) Randomised culling trials to provide unambiguous scientific evidence of the role of badgers in bovine TB.

There are currently about 250,000 wild badgers living in Britain.  It is thought that as few as 1% of these are infectious.