A MEMBER of the Badger Trust from Burley is urging people to protest against the cull on February 21.

Frankie James echoes the Badger Trust view that improved testing of infected cattle can beat bovine tuberculosis (bTB) without killing badgers.

She cites new research that indicates badger culling will reduce the number of bTB infected cattle by just 12 out of 15,000 but reducing the interval at which the cattle are tested for bTB by just one month could reduce the number of sick cattle by 193.

The Queen Mary University of London report states: “Regular and frequent testing of cattle could eventually lead to the eradication of the disease, whether or not badgers were culled.

“Keeping cattle housed in large sheds over winter could also double the number of infected cattle in a herd.”

Dominic Dyer of the Badger Trust and Care for the Wild said: “This research is large-scale, objective, and takes into full account the possibility of badgers being responsible for bTB infections in cattle – yet still it concludes that the answer to beating this disease is to focus on the cattle.

“This is the message we at the Badger Trust, Care for the Wild and many others, have been hammering home over the last couple of years, so maybe now the government will feel the need to actually listen.

“The role badgers play in spreading this disease has been massively exaggerated and the impact of culling them has been completely misunderstood. Find the infection, you’ll beat the disease.”

New figures from the Welsh badger vaccination programme also highlights just how exaggerated the impact of badgers has been.

Last year 1,316 badgers were vaccinated and all were returned to the wild in good health and none were found to have visible signs of bTB After three years of the five-year vaccination project, more than 3,500 badgers have been vaccinated and none have been found to have visible signs of bTB. The protest against the badger cull is being held on Saturday, February 21 as part of the Birmingham Wildlife Festival.