Badger cull study: 'no meaningful' effect on TB

When in power, Labour ruled out a cull of badgers in England after a study concluded it could make "no meaningful" contribution to addressing TB control in cattle.

• The study looked at culling badgers over a 60 square mile area over four years, reducing the population by around 70%.
• It found that culling reduced TB in cattle inside the cull area but it led badgers to move around, thereby increasing the disease in the areas adjacent to the cull.

• Later results from the trial showed that, overall, the widespread, repeated culling of badgers could reduce the incidence of disease in cattle herds by up to 16% over a decade.

• The method used to kill the badgers was to trap them and then shoot them, an expensive process which researchers calculated was not cost-effective.