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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2016 to Question 57987 and the Answer of 24 March 2017 to Question 66627, how many of the 421 carcasses of badgers have been examined for bovine tuberculosis in line with the Chief Veterinary Officer's advice in his report on the badger culls in 2015.

Culled carcasses from between 2013 – 2016 were not routinely tested for TB as the RBCT established that approximately one-third of badgers in areas of high incidence of TB in cattle were infected. This year a pilot study was started to explore ways in which badger carcasses obtained from the cull potentially could be used to gather long term information on levels of disease in badgers. A number of carcasses from nine of the areas were sampled and testing methodologies are being piloted. It will be some time before any interim findings on this exploratory undertaking are available.