UK Nature and Environment

The RBCT, considered the largest field experiment of its kind in history, was established to test whether killing badgers would result in a reduction of bovine TB in cattle, and followed many years of badger persecution in the name of disease control without evidence to justify it. The trial compared the incidents of cattle TB in areas where badgers were killed, with those where they weren’t. In total, some 11,000 badgers were shot during the trial.

The report on the results of the RBCT, published in 2006, claimed that the proactive killing of enough badgers over a wide enough area could significantly reduce incidents of cattle TB, albeit the authors of the report advised against such a policy on the grounds that it would not be cost-effective. In spite of this, the incoming coalition government announced in 2010 that licenced badger culling would be introduced in England.

The most recent study, led by eminent veterinary epidemiologist Professor Paul Torgerson at the University of Zurich, re-analysed the data from the RBCT, and concluded that, when using more suitable statistical methods, and accounting for all cattle herds in which bovine TB was detected during the trial, there was no evidence to support an effect of badger culling.