The Randomised Badger Culling Trial and the Seven Counties Road Traffic Accident Survey both finished in 2005. This meant there were no post-mortem examinations of badgers from these sources in 2006. However, a number of research projects were undertaken in 2006, which mainly involved sampling under anaesthesia and the culturing of samples taken for bovine TB from badgers that were released back to their setts. In addition, badgers found dead in an area surrounding a new diagnosis of TB in cattle (a “Potential Hotspot”) in England were post-mortemed in 2006.
In total, 973 tests were carried out on 589 badgers in England in 2006.