The UK government’s chief scientist stands accused of allowing political expediency to overrule good science after recommending the culling of badgers (BBC, Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph). There has been a long running debate on the British Isles over the merits of killing badgers to stop the spread of bovine TB, which they carry. Farmers’ groups have argued that the animals should be culled to safeguard cattle.

Earlier this week an independent scientific advisory group came down on the side of letting the stripy Typhoid Marys live, saying targeting one site would only encourage badger movement around the country. However the government’s chief boffin Sir David King thinks culling could be effective where badgers are contained, maybe by the sea or motorways. John Bourne, the author of the independent group report, said King’s conclusions were not in line with the science and were “consistent with the political need to do something about it”, many reports note. King’s comments do seem strange given badgers’ well known ability to cross or tunnel under roads.

The Telegraph points out that Bourne and King will appear together this week at an all party inquiry hearing. We can only hope that sparks will fly.

Nature has featured this issue in the past. Earlier this year we detailed a study showing that culling badgers would increase TB spread. And in 2006 a research paper we published on a field trial concluded: “We show that, as carried out in this experiment, culling reduces cattle TB incidence in the areas that are culled, but increases incidence in adjoining areas. These findings are biologically consistent with previous studies but will present challenges for policy development.”

The British are somewhat obsessed with badgers, one of the characters on popular radio soap The Archers was nearly sent to prison for shooting one. “The problem we are up against is everyone has the image of lovely, fluffy badgers galloping about, but cows are also entitled to lives,” farmer Peter Ganblett told the BBC (“except for the male calves”, he neglected to add). A number of news outlets are running ‘should we really kill them?’ discussion boards (BBC, Telegraph). Best comment so far: “I, like most people on this forum, do not have the full details to hand and therefore, am unable to comment.”

UPDATE – 25/10/07

Sparks did fly, as the independent scientists labelled King’s report on their report “”hastily written, superficial, selective” (Telegraph, Guardian).

Image: Alamy