So reading this, the only way to test a Badger for bovine tuberculosis is when it’s dead?
Badgers
Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the likely trends in the prevalence of infection in badgers inside the specified culling areas in the first year of the operation of the new arrangements. [68432]
Mr Paice: Our objective is to bring down the incidence of bovine TB in cattle throughout England from its current unacceptable level.
Currently there is no reliable diagnostic field test for bovine TB in live badgers so it would not be possible to know the prevalence of TB in badgers in an area before culling. Therefore the effect of culling on prevalence in the first year could not be seen.
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