Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of culling badgers on TB rates in cattle.

Rigorous statistical analysis, which adjusts for differences related to the risk of TB in cattle, has been carried out to measure any association between badger culling and cattle TB incidence in comparison to areas where badger culling has not taken place. This analysis covers data from the first two years of culling in Areas 1 and 2 (Gloucestershire and Somerset). It is available at the following link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ece3.3254

An updated statistical analysis of this data has been submitted to a peer-review journal.

The raw data, can be found on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-incidence-of-tb-in-cattle-in-licenced-badger-control-areas-in-2013-to-2017