§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action has been taken to prevent recolonisation of badger setts after clearance of TB-infected badgers in Krebs reactive areas. [140297]
§ Mr. BradshawAll trapped setts are subject to the same procedures, irrespective of the TB status of the badgers taken from them, and no action is taken to prevent re-colonisation of any setts in reactive areas.
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§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what procedures are carried out in respect of badger setts from which TB-infected badgers have been removed. [140298]
§ Mr. BradshawAll procedures are standardised and do not vary between setts from which TB infected badgers and non-infected badgers are taken.
Within the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, no specific action is taken against setts from which badgers have been removed. Following the removal of traps, at the conclusion of trapping operations, techniques such as sticking holes (placing sticks across them) may, occasionally, be used to assist subsequent surveys assess post-cull badger activity.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what radius was adopted to describe the area designated for badger culls in(a) the Krebs proactive and reactive culling protocols and (b) culling protocols adopted prior to 1988. [140310]
§ Mr. BradshawThe Krebs proactive and reactive culling areas were chosen from localities in Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire with the highest incidence of TB in cattle; each of the ten proactive and ten reactive areas measures approximately 10,000 hectares (100 sq km). Whilst culling is carried out across an entire proactive area, in reactive areas culling takes place only on and around farms which have had a TB breakdown.
The culling protocols adopted prior to 1986 were the Gassing Strategy (1975–1982) and the Clean Ring Strategy (1982–5). In the Gassing Strategy the area of badger removal extended up to 1 km from farms with confirmed TB breakdowns. The mean area of badger removal in Clean Ring Strategy areas was about 9 sq. km.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research the Department has commissioned on the use of anaesthesia in badger setts prior to lethal gassing. [140312]
§ Mr. BradshawNo research has been commissioned in this area.
Gassing of badgers has been discounted as a culling option because it is considered to be inhumane.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many badgers have been subject to post-mortem examination for TB in England in the past 10 years; how many were TB reactors; and what proportion of TB lesions found were considered to be of a type which would render badgers capable of transmitting bovine TB. [140313]
§ Mr. BradshawExcluding badgers taken in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) or in the seven counties road trafic accident survey, 14,387 badger carcases have been examined of which 2,995 (20.5 per cent.) were considered to be positive. The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISO) recommended that, pending completion of the RBCT, interim reports on numbers and locations of badgers culled and TB prevalences should not be published in1198W order to avoid encouraging illegal action against badgers, deterring participation in the trial and to protect the trial's statistical validity.
Of the badgers considered to be infected, only those with lesions detected in the lungs, pleura, kidneys and intestines are considered to be likely to be shedding M.bovis and so infectious. 447 (15.1 per cent. had lesions in these tissues.