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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the remains of badgers killed on roads are routinely tested for the presence of bovine tuberculosis.

Badgers killed on roads in England are not routinely tested for the presence of bovine tuberculosis, as to do so would not be cost effective. The Animal and Plant Health Agency does, however, carry out targeted testing of dead badgers around bovine tuberculosis outbreaks of unknown origin in the Low Risk Area.

Testing of badgers between 1998 and 2005 via the Randomised Badger Culling Trial 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.