§ Baroness Anelay of St. Johnsasked Her Majesty's Government:
In which areas of the country testing of badgers killed in road traffic accidents has been carried out on a continuous basis over the past five years; and which areas will be brought back into such testing after an interruption of post mortem testing of badgers. [HL3666]
77WA
§ The Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Donoughue)The Road Traffic Accident (RTA) survey of badgers was discontinued in August 1990. Since then RTA badger carcases have been collected and tested only on an ad-hoc basis as part of the epidemiological investigation of TB incidents.
The Krebs report recommended a limited reintroduction of the RTA survey, targeting areas with high or increasing herd breakdown rates and nearby areas with low breakdown rates. The Bourne Group endorsed this recommendation and identified the areas to be surveyed as Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Dorset. The Government expect this survey to start in the early part of 1999.