Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 18 November 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 20 November 2003. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 20 November 2003 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what radius was adopted to describe the area designated for badger culls in (a) the Krebs proactive and reactive culling protocols and (b) culling protocols adopted prior to 1988. - Including figures.

Answer: Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what radius was adopted to describe the area designated for badger culls in (a) the Krebs proactive and reactive culling protocols and (b) culling protocols adopted prior to 1988. [140310] Mr. Bradshaw: The Krebs proactive and reactive culling areas were chosen from localities in Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire with the highest incidence of TB in cattle; each of the ten proactive and ten reactive areas measures approximately 10,000 hectares (100 sq km). Whilst culling is carried out across an entire proactive area, in reactive areas culling takes place only on and around farms which have had a TB breakdown. The culling protocols adopted prior to 1986 were the Gassing Strategy (1975-1982) and the Clean Ring Strategy (1982-5). In the Gassing Strategy the area of badger removal extended up to 1 km from farms with confirmed TB breakdowns. The mean area of badger removal in Clean Ring Strategy areas was about 9 sq. km.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 140310; 413 c1200W;413 c1197W
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Death Badgers Disease control Location Wildlife Bovine tuberculosis
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk