Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what testing for bovine tuberculosis has been conducted on badgers that were killed as part of the cull to eradicate bovine tuberculosis.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Badgers culled under licence in Somerset and Gloucestershire in 2013 – 2015 and Dorset this year were not routinely tested for tuberculosis (TB), since this research had already been carried out under the Randomised Badger Cull Trial (RBCT).

However, testing of badgers between 1998 and 2005 via the RBCT and Road Traffic Accident surveys provided evidence of the typical prevalence of TB in badgers in areas of high incidence of TB in cattle. TB was found in around one third of all badgers in these areas.