The government has given permission for badger culls to go ahead in England for another year.
This year, badgers are now at risk in Staffordshire and Cumbria, in addition to the existing areas of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Herefordshire, Cheshire and Wiltshire.
The Wildlife Trusts believe that the government’s strategy is flawed because bTB is primarily a cattle problem, not a wildlife one and makes no sense at a time when a review of the government strategy which drives the culls – the bovine TB eradication strategy – is still underway.
Only 1 in 20 cases of bTB herd infections are transmitted directly from badgers, thus, culling badgers is not the answer and it is also counterproductive. Culling disrupts badgers’ social structure, causing them to move around more frequently and over longer distances – which can result in increased bTB transmission.