Badger Culls Risk Increased the Spread of Tuberculosis to Cattle.

[Natisha Ram]

Culling badgers drives them to roam further in fields, allowing them to disperse tuberculosis over a larger area. The culls might increase the risk of tuberculosis to spread to cattle. Because of this, governments have started to look for alternative approaches to culling. Culling is an imperfect way of controlling the spread of tuberculosis from badgers to cattle. The focus in mainly on how to improve tuberculosis testing systems, bio security measures, and cattle control movements. Prof Woodroffe, a researcher, has explored the effectiveness of culling for 9 years. She found out that the Krebs trial did control culling to some extent in the cull areas but temporarily increased cattle tuberculosis. The assumption was that although the culls reduced the number of infected badgers, the ones left were more effective in spreading infection because they moved around more. A lady named Cally Ham then tried a trial by tracking the movement of the badgers using GPS collars in areas with and without culling. She found that the badgers in the culling areas covered an area of land 61% larger than badgers in zones with no culling. They also visited 45% more fields. These observations showed that cattle are thought to get tuberculosis from bacteria left on their fields from infected badgers. This increases the risk of tuberculosis in both cattle and badgers. This was hard on farmers. They are now trying to control the infected animals from spreading tuberculosis and are trying to find alternative ways to perform the task of culling. 

What is your opinion about this topic? Any ideas of how the disease can be controlled or how they can cull badgers in a more efficient way without spreading tuberculosis? What can this situation lead to which could be worse than things are right now?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49938943