25/08/2026
Consultation: Potential Wildlife Intervention Options – Part of the Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Blueprint - Closing date: 25 September 2026
Consultation link: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-potential-wildlife-intervention-options-part-bovine-tuberculosis-northern-ireland-blueprint-eradication?fbclid=IwY2xjawT6RJZwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMEFwQm5TdHZEVUtzeWZTMzhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeVMg7ksxfusWzzNdMbDPdN8S1wIm4fTP2P06Ik4XEMMg2uAFjSlGazsI2xkA_aem_rKhFsJ_fIbIE5Oon8Cq6Xw
DAERA have published this public consultation document on Potential Wildlife Intervention methods to control TB in cattle. Their aim is to introduce the mass killing of badgers. The idea that these proposals have been designed to try to protect cattle form getting TB is totally disingenuous. They have been drawn up to protect the farmers from any financial outlay they could incur from having to improve their inadequate hygiene measures and instead of laying the blame where it belongs, they want to blame the badgers instead.
Experts all agree that cattle to cattle is the most important route for TB infection and yet the consultation specifically says that this will not be addressed. In the opening page of the document the DAEA minister says –
“International experience demonstrates that effective control requires a comprehensive approach, combining strong on-farm biosecurity, effective cattle controls, and, where supported by evidence, appropriate wildlife interventions.”
Yet they say right at the beginning of the document –
“This consultation does not seek views on individual cattle measures, individual people-related measures, or decisions relating to compensation.”
How, then, do these proposals hope to eradicate TB when the minister that composed them is ruling out the main method of TB transmission.
The consultation states –“It is essential to ensure the bTB programme remains affordable and continues to be able to support the NI cattle industry.”
In other words, the welfare of the farming industry is the main driver of the consultation not the welfare of animals or the spread of TB.
Further evidence of this is shown by DAERA’s previous attempt at a consultation where they arbitrarily awarded points to various factors relating to the proposed call.
This issue was addressed by the judge in the court ruling which banned the badger cull until a proper consultation took place -
“By way of example, the weighting (of 30%) given to “Enhanced support from the regional farming community” was twice that of the weighting (of 15%) given to wildlife stakeholder engagement. It may be thought surprising that support from the farming community and improved trading confidence were each given a weighting of 30%, and therefore 60% between them, when the weighting for “Improved overall cattle health and welfare” (expressly recognised as relating to “the main aim of the bTB eradication strategy”) was merely given a weighting of 15%”
In other words, DAERA believe keeping farmers happy is much more important than than eradicating TB.
The government’s own website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bovine-tb states –
“Bovine TB is mainly spread into new herds through the movement of infected cattle that have not been detected.”
So, the government admit that this is how TB spreads but, as stated, are not going to address this issue. They only want to look at badgers as the culprits. They also say -
“Infected animals spread the disease mainly through coughing and sneezing. Bacteria are released into the air and inhaled by other animals in close contact. The disease can also be spread:
• from infected cows to their offspring during suckling and, much more rarely, in the womb
• through contaminated equipment, animal waste, feed and pasture”
Notice that they say it can be passed on through contaminated farm equipment and animal waste. In fact, spreading slurry on pasture land is one of the main ways TB is spread and DAERA is well aware of the problem.
As for contaminated farming equipment, have you ever been to a farm where tractors and other machinery are cleaned after use or where the yards or milking parlours are properly cleaned?
These issues are not to be addressed either.
It is claimed that cows can get TB directly from nose-to-nose contact with a badger or, more likely, from eating grass contaminated by badger urine or droppings. There are 1.6 million cows and only 33,500 badgers in the country, according to the Northern Ireland Badger Group, that is only 2.5 badgers per square kilometre and less than 1 in 5 have TB. Now common sense will tell you that a cow in a field full of other cows is much more likely to catch TB from inhaling aerosol droplets form another cow than the very remote possibility it will get it from coming face to face with a TB infected badger. It is also more likely to get it from a field totally covered in slurry than from a field where a badger may have went to the toilet. The whole idea that badgers are a major source of spreading TB is a red herring to distract from the real issue of farm hygiene.
DAERA’s own website as quoted in the court case states -
“The exact means of spread between the species and the relative importance of potential routes of infection have not been established. The proportion of the disease in cattle that can be directly attributed to badgers has not been quantified.”
The Northern Ireland Badger Group did a fantastic job at preventing the cull going ahead previously when they and Wild Justice successfully won a court battle to prevent DAERA from doing so on the grounds there was no proper consultation of the matter. They have produced a very informative leaflet in conjunction with the USPCA that covers all the issues. See here - https://online.fliphtml5.com/txmvl/julf/ =1.
Some of the points that the group made include quotes from The Independent Expert Panel who analysed the results from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial that previously took place in England. They said -
“Badger Culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain.”
“The rising incidence of disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of cattle-based control measures alone”
The group also noted that –
“A peer reviewed analysis of the government’s own Tb data in England showed that current badger culls have no discernible impact on cattle TB. Researchers found no statistical difference between herd TB levels in areas where culling had taken place compared to areas where badgers had not been culled.
The Ulster Wildlife Trust also published an informative article -https://www.ulsterwildlife.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/Summer%20IH_FINAL%203.8.21.pdf
in their summer 2021 edition of their magazine.
Here is an extract –
“In the Republic of Ireland, 110,000 badgers have been culled since 1989 and over the past three years bovine TB has successively increased, mainly in areas of dairy herd expansion and higher stocking rates. In contrast, Wales has seen similar decreases in the incidence and prevalence of bovine TB in cattle, using a much more ethical approach. This does not involve widespread culling of badgers, but effectively dealing with the primary factors in transmission such as animal movements and biosecurity.”
DAERA’s consultation itself is misleading as it states - No preferred wildlife intervention option is being proposed at this stage. The purpose of the consultation is to gather evidence and stakeholder views to inform future Ministerial decisions on wildlife intervention and the wider implementation of the Blueprint.”
This is patently untrue as they DAERA were already planning to go ahead with a plan to cull badgers by shooting them until the Badger Group and Wild Justice successfully won a court battle to prevent them from doing so on the grounds there was no proper consultation of the matter.
The consultation also proposes badger vaccination as a method of controlling TB, although they obviously prefer killing badgers. However, if they believe vaccination works how come it is not and never has been a policy of DAERA to vaccinate cattle to protect against them against TB seeing they are the species they are allegedly worried about. Could it be because as stated in their consultation paper that –
“It is essential to ensure the bTB programme remains affordable and continues to be able to support the NI cattle industry.”
In other words, they don’t want the farmers to have to be out of pocket to protect their animals against a disease they are ultimately responsible for with their inadequate biosecurity measures.
The proposed badger cull future will be cruel, unethical and ineffective. The experts agree that the biggest cause of bovine TB is cattle to cattle transmission and that improved cattle biosecurity measures are the most important steps in reducing TB transmission. Despite this, DAERA have categorically stated that examining cattle to cattle transmission will not even be part of this consultation process. DAERAs proposals are aimed at protecting farmers and their unhygienic farming methods that lead to TB transmission and blaming the badgers. If this culling goes ahead, it will result in the barbaric slaughter of thousands of badgers but will have absolutely no effect on the rates of TB in cattle.
The quote in the Badger Group’s leaflet by Professor Sir Charles Godfray (Chair of the Independent Review of bovine TB) puts it- “It is wrong to put all the blame on wildlife and to use this as an excuse to not make hard decisions in industry, which is going to cost the industry money.”
