Badger Culls May Expand, Then End

“No one wants to be culling badgers forever,” says minister as Defra launches review to ensure bovine TB strategy is on track

The Government is to review its 25-year bovine tuberculosis (TB) strategy, with suggestions that it will expand its badger culls, before moving away from the practice in later phases of the plan in favour of other approaches.

The 25-year strategy outlines a range of ways in which to combat bovine TB. So far, the first phase has mainly focused on cattle movement controls, the removal of infected cattle from herds and the badger cull, which covered more than 20 different areas in 2017.