Bovine Tuberculosis

Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle. It's caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), which can also cause disease in many other mammals, including badgers.

This devastating disease causes grief to so many, particularly within the farming community. Some believe that badgers play a large part in the spread of bovine TB among cattle. As a result, large numbers of badgers have died in culling - especially in the past 50 years.

We don't support the badger cull and believe that more can be done to tackle the disease in cattle. We believe there are solutions that will benefit farmers, cattle and badgers.

Managing bovine TB in cattle

We're pleased with the conclusion of the Godfray review, published in 2018, which concludes that the policy focus on badgers had taken attention away from how to better manage the disease in cattle. 

We produced a report on Bovine TB that explains why we're against the badger cull and gives a number of recommendations on how to improve the situation with regard to cattle and farmers. In 2019, we asked for your views on these proposals, as set out in our Bovine TB consultation document. You can read about the outcome of this in Ruminations on bovine tuberculosis.

We're asking for farmers for their feedback on our bovine TB proposals

We'd like to work with farmers in developing management strategies for bovine TB on their farms, using some of the ideas discussed in our proposals. If you'd like to talk to us more about this, please contact:

  • Email: bovinetbteam@rspca.org.uk 
  • Write to: Bovine TB Team, Science Group RSPCA, Parkside, Chart Way, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1GY

 

Share this...