"Another reason it won't work is that badgers are only part of
the problem – about 50 per cent of new TB cases are cattle-to-
cattle," says Krebs. "I'm not aware of any informed expert in
the relevant areas of population biology, epidemiology and
behavioural ecology who thinks that the evidence supports
culling as a sensible policy for controlling TB in cattle on a
national scale." In Ireland, though, culling badgers has had an
effect. The Irish government began a culling programme there in
2002 following a trial which found that herd outbreaks of TB
were between two and 25 times less likely in culled than
unculled areas (Preventive Veterinary Medicine, doi.org/b33wc7).
DEFRA is also working on a more long-term solution that all
sides in the debate support – vaccinating cattle so they can't
spread TB between themselves, or to badgers. "To my knowledge,
no one else is developing one, so we're at the forefront," says
Nigel Gibbens, the chief veterinary officer at DEFRA. "We have
proof-of-principle it works, but