asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food whether badgers which are infected with tuberculosis constitute a potential reservoir of infection for cattle; and his policy for dealing with this problem.
Written Answers. - Inspection of Cattle.
45.
Two separate committees that have considered this question in Britain in recent years, namely the Zuckermann (1980) and Dunnet (1986) Committees, believed that infectious badgers are potential sources of infection to cattle and that badgers must be taken into account in a bovine TB eradication programme.
Under our disease eradication programme investigation of a possible link between badgers and TB outbreaks on particular holdings is initiated normally in cases where reinfection is a recurring problem and then only after thorough examination of all other possible causes of the breakdown. In some such cases badgers may be captured. This is done under licence granted to my Department by the Wildlife Service. Application for licence is made only after the most strict screening process. The capture of badgers under licence is then carried out under the supervision of veterinary inspectors of my Department, with careful attention to the humane aspects. Where the proportion of badgers identified as being infected is significant, the remaining badgers are removed and the cattle herd is closely monitored for several years afterwards.
I am satisfied that the findings to date justify continuation of the present approach on a selective basis. All the data and results are carefully recorded and assessed and apart from the research dimension attached to that work, my Department are also associated with a number of projects relating to badger ecology and population dynamics, the search for a TB vaccine for badgers, and the development of a diagnostic TB test on live badgers.