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Badger culling does not control cattle TB

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2004

M. HANCOX
Affiliation:
17 Nouncells Cross, Stroud, Glos. GL5 1PT, UK
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A somewhat unpredicted effect of the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis, has been to ‘derail the TB control programme both as regards cattle measures and the badger culling trial’ (EFRA 2003). Sadly, cattle TB is now out of control, rising by c. 20% a year, and back to 1960s levels. Unfortunately attention has focused to such an extent on badgers that many now seemingly do not understand how TB works in cattle and why annual testing and movement bans are the answer: they brought cattle TB down to tiny southwest hot-spots by the mid-1970s without any badger culling (Hancox 2000, 2002, 2003).

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© 2004 Cambridge University Press