TB policy and the badger culling trials

Response to follow-up letter from Gallagher and colleagues. Gallagher and colleagues emphasise the magnitude of the cattle tuberculosis ( TB) problem (a concern we share) and assert their view that badger culling offers the obvious solution. Their basis seems to be their ‘many years of practical experience’, coupled with ‘opinion’ and anecdotal comments from contexts far removed from the current situation in south-west England, rather than scientific evidence on which the veterinary profession, as a science-based discipline, should insist. The position of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB ( ISG), by contrast, derives from the robust statistical results of a scientifically designed, rigorously implemented culling trial.