Urgent calls are being made to pursue vaccination as the only realistic policy to control bovine TB.
Commenting on the Government's decision to suspend the reactive culling of badgers in the bovine TB trials because initial results show reactive culling caused a 27pc increase in bovine TB cases, Andrew George MP, Liberal Democrat shadow rural affairs secretary, said: "Wildlife groups will be assured that the Government has taken action based on the sound evidence of the bovine TB trials.
"The findings of the trials prove that the policy of reactive culling is no longer a viable option. Successive governments have promised that a bovine TB vaccine will be identified. "This Government must now urgently pursue a candidate vaccine as the only realistic policy to begin the process of controlling this epidemic."
Animal Health Minister Ben Bradshaw in a written statement to Parliament yesterday announced the halt to the reactive culling of badgers.
The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) was appointed by ministers in 1998 to design and oversee a large-scale field trial, the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), aimed at evaluating badger culling as a means to reduce the incidence of cattle TB.
The trial involves three experimental treatments: proactive culling, which aims to reduce badger densities to very low levels across entire trial areas, reactive culling, which seeks to remove only those badgers geographically close to recent cattle TB outbreaks on articular premises, and no culling (survey only).
"The culling of badgers in reactive treatment areas of the RBCT will be suspended from today," said Mr Bradshaw.
"The decision to suspend the culling of badgers in these areas has been taken on the basis of recent scientific findings from the ISG.
"The ISG has advised ministers that its interim analysis of trial data so far indicates that there was a 27pc increase in the number of cases of bovine TB (breakdowns) occurring in reactive culling areas compared to the related survey-only areas where no badger culling took place.
"I have decided to suspend operations immediately because of the risk that a further three months of culling would cause additional TB breakdowns. The results that have now emerged from the reactive culling part of the trial will be published as soon as possible.
"Data on herd breakdowns from the reactive trial areas will continue to be collected and subjected to further analysis, with the more detailed results being submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date.
"On the advice of the ISG, operations will continue in proactive areas because the data for these areas does not yet yield a statistically significant result. The survey- only (control) areas will also continue to be monitored. The Government's policy on bovine TB is based on scientific advice and these findings will be taken into account in the development of the forthcoming TB strategy."