BOVINE TB
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) affects a number of animals including both cattle and badgers. While the RSPCA understands - and agrees - that managing bTB can have a significant impact on farmers’ mental health and wellbeing, we remain firmly opposed to badger culling as a solution to tackling the disease. This is based on both scientific and animal welfare evidence.
Badgers are a protected species by law, and are considered one of our most iconic and popular species of native wildlife. England has been culling badgers intensively since 2013, which has resulted in over 247,000 badgers being killed as part of its disease prevention programme. However, there is still no scientific consensus that the culling of badgers has been effective in reducing bTB in cattle in England. While some stakeholders continue to believe that badgers play a major role in the spread of bTB, the science is now clear and there is consensus that this is incorrect. It is now widely recognised that the majority of bTB is transmitted between cattle, with a growing body of robust scientific evidence showing that the majority of infection occurs within and between herds.
The RSPCA wishes to see a humane, sustainable solution to managing bTB that does not resort to the culling of badgers. The science tells us that transmission of the disease between cattle is a far more significant issue than badger to cattle transmission, and that there is an undetected reservoir of the disease in cattle that the current testing regime is not – and is not capable of – picking up. It is critical that any changes in the Welsh Government’s approach towards tackling bTB are evidence-based and use robust scientific data, as opposed to being based on perception and confirmation bias. As such, we would welcome the opportunity to use our scientific knowledge and expertise to support the new Welsh Government to tackle bTB in a way which does not needlessly pose a threat to one of our most misunderstood species of wildlife.