RABDF has expressed its disdain at the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) report findings released today, which conclude that ‘badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB in Britain .' Consequently, the Association has called for all sectors of the livestock industry to unite and lobby Government for a strategy to eradicate TB.

“Introducing a bTB eradication strategy is the only solution for healthy populations of both cattle and badgers,” says RABDF chairman, Lyndon Edwards. “Research findings worldwide, have unanimously concluded that the wildlife reservoir must be tackled if bTB is to be eradicated successfully.”

Mr Edwards says the ISG report was flawed from the start. “It very clearly states that ‘the ISG was directed by Ministers at the outset of the Randomised Badger Culling Trials that the elimination of badgers from large tracts of the countryside was politically unacceptable',” he states. “How can this possibly be accepted as independent unbiased research, when the Government has clearly placed shackles on the results before the work began? In moral terms, the Government is effectively putting the worth of badgers above that of farmers and cattle.”

ISG chairman, Professor John Bourne in his letter to the Secretary of State David Miliband states that the ‘scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of the disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone.'

Conversely, RABDF believes that the ISG's proposed measures simply to control and contain bTB are far from satisfactory. “The nation's ultimate aim has to be the eradication of this catastrophic disease. The fact is that bTB will never be eradicated from Great Britain if we fail to address the issue of the wildlife reservoir. Indeed, the ISG report itself recognises that ‘badgers contribute significantly to the disease in cattle',” says Mr Edwards. “RABDF refuses to accept that bTB can be tackled by a one pronged approach. Eradication is an impossible task whilst there is a constant source of infection present.”

He adds: “bTB has brought the agricultural livestock industry to its knees and in many parts of the country it is on the brink of collapse. Farmers are being plunged into bankruptcy, and not just those that have had outbreaks of the disease, but also those having to find the financial resources to carry out the preventative control measures. It is high time the Government recognises that if they fail to adopt badger culling as part of an overall strategy, both they and the farming community will be faced with increasing and indefinite costs.”