Badger Cull Commences; New rules for Edge Areas

The hugely controversial cull of badgers to combat the spread of bovine TB has started today (27^th August).  Co-ordinated by the NFU, the pilot culls are being carried out in the TB hotspot areas in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset by trained marksmen.  The culls are planned to run for six weeks and up to 5,000 badgetrs could be killed. 

The start of the cull has been met with predictable protests and the NFU have been granted an interim injunction by the High Court against people campaigning against the culls.  The injunction has been granted under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and will prevent a number of named defendants and ‘persons unknown’ from carrying out a number of unlawful acts against a defined group of ‘protected persons’. These ‘Protected Persons’ include farmers, NFU members and staff as well as those carrying out the culling. The High Court ruling means no protest will be allowed to take place within 100m of the homes, and within 25m of businesses, of anyone involved.

Meanwhile, DEFRA has announced even more new rules to try and stop the spread of the disease.  The new measures are targeted at the Edge Areas – Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, parts of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and East Sussex and will commence in October.  The new Edge Area measures include:

• Any herds in Cheshire and Derbyshire which are within a 3km radius of a farm with a new TB outbreak will have to have an immediate skin test and a further one in 6 months
• Those herds which have their TB Free status suspended following skin testing will require two clean tests before being reinstated
• Herds which have their TB Free status withdrawn will have to have the more sensitive gamma-interferon blood test
• Cattle Tracing System Links (CTS Links) will not be allowed between Edge Area and High Risk Areas

These Edge Areas will also be able to access a share of £250,000 to fund up to half the costs of the first year of new badger vaccination projects.  The AHVLA is also conducting new projects to try and estimate where new badger populations in the Edge Area might be and also to see how useful post mortems on badgers killed on the road might be to determine the levels of bovine TB in the areas.

DEFRA estimates that by eliminating the disease within the Edge Areas will benefit farmers and livestock businesses by £27m over 10 years.  It also estimates that if the disease is left unchecked it will spread to the Low Risk areas of Greater Manchester, Lincolnshire, Merseyside and West Yorkshire by 2022.