REGARDING the recent letter in the Gazette & Herald from H O Griffiths about the culling of badgers to control bovine TB, I would also like to state some relevant facts about the issue.

The cull in 2013 cannot be described as a complete failure. On one farm, 94 badgers were culled and this year is the first in the past 15 years that this farm has not had a positive test for TB.

In all other countries where culling takes place there have been significant reductions in TB, Germany and Ireland are two such countries. Tests on road killed badgers in Cheshire have shown more than 25 per cent of the badgers were infected with TB. On the Isle of Man there are no badgers and there is no TB in their cattle.

Last year, 32,600 cattle were slaughtered because they had TB.

The National Trust has been vaccinating badgers for four years on one of their estates. This year five farmers on the estate, for the first time, had TB positive cattle in there herds which had to be slaughtered.

One question I would like answered is – “how many badgers is the desired number in this country?” Because since the protection order came into law to outlaw badger baiting, which nobody can approve of, the numbers of badgers has increased probably tenfold. Without culling, where will the increase lead us?

Back in the 1960s, when all herds of cattle were tested annually if any “hot spots” of TB were identified, a local cull of badgers went alongside the culling of the infected cattle. By the end of the decade TB was virtually eliminated.

One reason that the cull in 2013 was deemed to be not a success was that to achieve a result it is thought a 70 per cent cull was needed.

Nobody knew how many badgers there were to start with. When the cull started it was realised that the numbers of badgers were much higher than previously thought. Therefore the target figure was not achieved.

I hope this helps balance the argument and rectify some of the myths that surround the culling issue. At the end of the day we all want healthy cattle and wildlife to live in our countryside.

Guy Raines, Norton