Covid-style focus on tests and vaccines 'could end badger cull'

Labour ministers can end the badger cull if it implements a Covid-style focus on testing and vaccinating, the author of a government-commissioned report has said.

- Helena Horton

Ministerial plans to stop the shooting of the animals can be achieved, but at a cost to the Treasury, the report warns.

The government promised in its 2024 election manifesto that the shooting of badgers would end by 2029. Badgers are culled to the point of local extinction because they spread bovine tuberculosis (bTB) to cattle, and the disease can wipe out entire herds. The total cost of the disease to taxpayers, including the cattle industry, is estimated at about £150m annually. More than 210,000 badgers have been killed since the cull began in 2013.

However, the current level of investment in testing and vaccinating cattle and badgers is not sufficient for bTB to be suppressed, Sir Charles Godfray, who wrote the report, said.