Badger Culling and Bovine TB in Cattle: A Re-Evaluation of Proactive Culling Benefit in the Randomized Badger Culling Trial

Abstract

Aspects of design and analysis of the Randomized Badger Culling Trial in England are considered with respect to the relationship between proactive badger culling and incidence of new bovine tuberculosis cattle herd breakdowns. Assumptions made by the Independent Scientific Group report in 2007 on the RBCT experiment including its design are reviewed. Independent re-evaluation of RBCT data does not show a statistically significant relationship between proactive badger culling and new herd breakdown. Better understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease since the RBCT experiment and an alternative statistical approach challenges the methods, analyses and conclusions of the effects of proactive culling in RBCT. Hence the validity of its current application in large scale badger culls in England since 2013 is questioned.