Parliamentary Questions

11 Dec 2003: Column 538W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people, since 1998, have been arrested for interfering with Government badger traps; and how many have been prosecuted. [141973]

11 Dec 2003 : Column 539W

Mr. Bradshaw: The arrest and prosecution of anti-trial activists is the responsibility of the relevant police forces in whose areas the Randomised Badger Culling Trial areas are located, and the Crown Prosecution Service. Defra does not receive information on, or maintain records of, such arrests and prosecutions.

11 Dec 2003 : Column 539W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what deleterious effects on wildlife arising from the current badger population level have been recorded by her Department and other UK public bodies. [141992]

Mr. Bradshaw: Previous research has shown that there is a negative relationship between badger and hedgehog abundance, i.e. more badgers equals fewer hedgehogs, in rural areas. This is believed to be due to hedgehog predation by badgers and through hedgehogs avoiding areas of higher badger density. However, this is not necessarily a “deleterious effect on wildlife”, since predator/prey interactions are a feature of ecosystems. It has been suggested that badgers may impact adversely on some species of ground nesting birds. The interaction between the badgers and other species in the ecosystem is the subject of a study being carried out by the Central Science Laboratory. This study is being conducted in selected areas of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial and the results will not be available until after the fieldwork programme finishes at the end of 2004.

11 Dec 2003 : Column 539W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total cost has been of the reactive cull component of the Government's Randomised Badger Culling Trials. [142459]

Mr. Bradshaw: It is not possible to give an accurate cost of the reactive element of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial. The total cost of the trial to the end of March 2004 is forecast to have reached £30.5 million.

11 Dec 2003: Column 539W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many badgers have been killed as part of the Randomised Badger Culling Trials; how many were tested for TB infection; and how many were culture positive for TB. [142467]

Mr. Bradshaw: As at 5 December 2003, 8,276 badgers had been culled in the Randomised Badger Culling Trials. All culled badgers are tested for TB infection. On the advice of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, data on the prevalence of TB in badgers caught in the trial, along with locations of their capture and the incidence of TB in cattle in trial areas, once triplets are active, are not released. This is to protect the integrity of the trial, and for the security of Defra field staff and farmers co-operating in the work.

11 Dec 2003 : Column 539W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria are used to assess whether a reactive badger culling programme is effective. [142472]

Mr. Bradshaw: These are set out in the Second Report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB. Essentially, over the same time period, the number of cattle herd breakdowns in reactive trial areas are compared to the number of herd breakdowns in the survey only trial areas, taking into account factors such

11 Dec 2003 : Column 540W

as numbers of herds per trial area, timing of tuberculin test and a number of other variables. For analytical purposes, the starting point used for such comparisons, for each triplet, is the end of the initial culling operation in the proactive trial area.

11 Dec 2003: Column 540W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what examples there have been of reactive badger culling programmes in England where the work was successful in controlling TB in cattle; and where and when those programmes were carried out. [141970]

Mr. Bradshaw: Since the early 1970s MAFF/Defra has carried out a range of badger control strategies in an attempt to reduce TB incidence in cattle. These were reviewed in the Krebs Report in 1997 where, among other things, it was recommended that a scientific field experiment be set up to test rigorously the effectiveness (and cost-effectiveness) of different badger culling strategies and to provide the evidence on which to base future TB control strategies. The Krebs report recommended a randomised block approach comprising three treatments: reactive culling, proactive culling, and no culling. The Randomised Badger Culling Trial, as recommended by Krebs and designed by the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, commenced in 1998.

Previous control strategies included Gassing (1975–82), Clean Ring (1982–86), Interim (1986 to 1998) and Live Test (1994–96) further details are available in the Krebs Report Chapter 5 page 76. None of the control strategies have been assessed in a properly designed experiment to establish their efficacy. While removal operations may have had an effect on the prevalence of TB in badgers and on herd breakdowns, other factors may also have influenced these. In the absence of scientific controls, it is not possible to separate out the effects of badger removal from these confounding factors.

11 Dec 2003: Column 540W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the incidence of TB in (a) badgers and (b) cattle in England during (i) 2004 and (ii) 2005. [142469]

11 Dec 2003: Column 541W

Mr. Bradshaw: It is only possible to make estimates of the incidence of bovine TB in cattle based on previous years. Unfortunately, data for both 2002 and 2001 cannot be easily compared to earlier years. This is because, in 2001, TB testing was largely suspended during the foot and mouth disease outbreak, and in 2002 much of the testing effort was aimed at high-risk herds and those with overdue tests. Nevertheless, early indications suggest that the reduced levels of testing in 2001 have not substantially altered the underlying historical trend of confirmed TB incidents in cattle, which continues to rise at a yearly average rate of about 18 per cent. for new herd incidents.

No estimates have been made regarding the incidence of TB in badgers.

11 Dec 2003: Column 541W

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of the level of funding to laboratories for the examination of bovine samples for M. bovis on the time scale for the testing of samples. [142338]

Mr. Bradshaw: Culture of samples for Mycobacterium bovis (the causative organism for bovine tuberculosis) takes at least six weeks. A backlog of samples built up at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) after the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001.

An extra £650,000 funding was made available in 2003–04 to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) to tackle the backlog. So far in 2003, the monthly throughput at VLA of bovine samples for culture has been more than three times higher than in 2002. Fresh samples are now being processed as they arrive at VLA and we are further reducing the backlog of frozen samples.

At the end of October 2003 there were 1,781 tissue samples awaiting culture at the VLA (down from 6,329 at the end of March 2003). Nearly all of the outstanding samples (1,712) are from carcases that showed no visible lesions at post-mortem, and thus not causing a delay in lifting movement restrictions from farms.