One Body of Evidence, Three Different Policies: Bovine Tuberculosis Policy in Britain
| Published date | 01 June 2011 |
| Date | 01 June 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9256.2011.01407.x |
| Subject Matter | Research and Analysis |
P O L I T I C S : 2 0 1 1 V O L 3 1 ( 2 ) , 9 1 – 9 9
Research and Analysis
One Body of Evidence, Three Different
Policies: Bovine Tuberculosis Policy
in Britainponl_140791..99
Adam Spencer
University of Nottingham
Bovine tuberculosis is an intractable policy problem characterised by conflict. Devolution offers the
possibility of significant policy variation within Great Britain and bovine tuberculosis has seen this.
In Great Britain three distinct policies developed on the back of the same substantial evidence base.
Science has not provided the answer and the law has ensured that it remains a difficult issue for the
Welsh and Westminster governments. The low incidence of bovine tuberculosis in Scotland has
allowed a sustainable policy to develop in that nation.
The establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were among the
most important constitutional innovations of the first term of the last Labour
government. Devolution gave these new bodies significant executive power. With
this arose the possibility of significant policy variation within Great Britain. Devo-
lution also took place to Northern Ireland. However, for reasons of space and the
particular nature of politics in the province, Northern Ireland is not discussed in this
article.
This article examines the case of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). By the 2010 general
election three distinctive policies were in place in Great Britain. In England the
Labour government decided that there would be no cull of badgers and trials of a
badger vaccine would begin in summer 2010; Wales decided upon a limited cull of
badgers combined with enhanced cattle-based measures to control the disease;
while Scotland had followed policies leading to it being declared a bTB free area in
September 2009.
Bovine TB has attracted attention from political scientists. Recent articles on the
subject have approached the problem from the perspective of evidence-based
policymaking (Wilkinson, 2007) and as a question of framing (Grant, 2009).
The structure of the article is this. A brief discussion of bTB as a policy problem is
followed by discussion of the development of policy in respect of badgers. There is
detailed coverage of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’
(Defra’s) response to the Independent Scientific Group’s interim reports which goes
beyond Katy Wilkinson’s (2007) study and compliments Wyn Grant’s (2009) work
examining the National Archive on the issue. Following this, a review of the three
© 2011 The Author. Politics © 2011 Political Studies Association
92
A D A M S P E N C E R
policies pursued in Britain is presented. Finally, there is a brief discussion of
developments in policy since the 2010 election.
The conclusions are threefold. First, Scotland, which historically has had a low
incidence of bTB, has benefited from devolution in being able to achieve bTB-free
status within the EU. While it might have achieved this without devolution, the
tendency has been to have a single policy for all of GB on animal health as ‘animal
diseases don’t respect political boundaries’ (Enticott and Franklin, 2009, p. 379).
This suggests that bTB-free status without devolution would certainly have been
harder to achieve. Second, science has not been able to offer a definitive answer to
the problem for policymakers. This had led to different conclusions on the desir-
ability of culling badgers as part of control strategies. Finally, recent developments
have served to reinforce the intractable nature of bTB as a policy problem.
Bovine TB as a problem
Bovine TB is a zoonotic infection of cattle caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium
bovis. M. bovis can cause disease in humans. In the 1930s there were some 2,000
deaths annually from bovine TB (Hancox, 2002, p. 224). The consumption of raw
milk was the usual source of infection, but as pasteurisation of milk became routine,
the number of cases dropped. In 2007, there were only 27 cases. However, the
potential for human disease is one reason why government is interested in the
disease in cattle.
While the human impact of the disease has been reduced, the impact of bovine TB
on government remains significant. In 2003, 6 per cent of cattle herds suffered TB
breakdown (Defra, 2005a, p. 20), mostly concentrated in the south-west and west
of England, and the south-west of Wales (Reynolds, 2006, p. 119). New herd
breakdowns were running at an average of 18 per cent increase per annum (Defra,
2005a, p. 20). The economic cost to the taxpayer rose from £38.2 million in
1999/2000 to £88.2 million in 2003/2004 (Defra, 2005a, p. 26). Farmers, too, suffer
costs if their herd becomes affected.
Policy to eradicate bTB from the national herd focused for decades on annual
testing of animals and the slaughter of reactor animals. By 1979 only 89 herds,
mostly in the south-west of England, were affected (Hancox, 2002, p. 223).
However, other demands on the animal health budget, especially BSE, led to
annual testing being abandoned in 1992/1993 and replaced by a system of testing
intervals determined by the parish incidence of the disease.
Bovine tuberculosis is very much a regional disease. The south-west of England is
the worst affected, but Wales and the West Midlands also have significant incidence
of disease.
Bovine tuberculosis and the badger
The discovery of a TB-infected badger in 1971 led to the belief that badgers were a
wildlife reservoir for the disease in cattle. Licences to kill badgers were issued to
farmers under the 1973 Badger Act to prevent the spread of disease. Farmers killed
by trapping or shooting the badgers. Welfare concerns led the then Ministry of
© 2011 The Author. Politics © 2011 Political Studies Association
POLITICS: 2011 VOL 31(2)
B O V I N E T B P O L I C I E S I N B R I TA I N
93
Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to decide that only its own people would
carry out culling. From 1975 such culls were carried out by gassing the animals in
their setts, a provision...
To continue reading
Request your trial