LAUSR

I write in response to the debate article ‘The badger cull policy is not evidence based’ by Tom Langton ( VR , 8 June 2019, vol 184, p 715). There is a lot of fact presented in this article and there is a temptation, therefore, to read some of the interpretation as fact too. For example, the fact that there is no more up to date science on badger culling than the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) is true, but it is also true that independent, well-qualified experts have supported the idea that there is a transfer of the disease between badger and cattle. For example, the third paragraph of the summary of the report by Charles Godfray and colleagues1 states ‘… the presence of infected badgers does pose a threat to local cattle herds’. Given …