Badger Culling

Mr. Hayes
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when experiments on controlling cattle TB by badger culling were first begun by his Department; how many badgers have been culled to date; and what the cost of such culls has been.

Mr. Bradshaw
The only experiment run by DEFRA or MAFF is the randomised badger culling trial (RBCT), which began in 1998. A total of 10,957 badgers were culled during the trial. Culling operations ended in October 2005, with some surveying work continuing into 2006. The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, which oversaw the trial, is now working through an analysis of the data for its final report which is due in 2007.

The RBCT has cost £48 million, which includes the costs of the field trial, analysis and audit.

Badger culling operations prior to the RBCT were badger control strategies—not experiments. Further information on the RBCT, and a history of badger controls, is available on the DEFRA website at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tb/abouttb/badgers.htm.