final report - ARCHIVE: Defra

Economic, social and behavioural considerations
fencing off large badger latrines;
repairing walls and other measures to reduce the number of badger crossing points at field
boundaries;
preventing entry to buildings where there is evidence of badger intrusion;
avoiding scattering concentrates on the ground and raising licks out of reach (e.g. suspending
them from trees);
routine disinfection of equipment and buildings where reactor cattle are housed.
6.1.4 They recommended, as a high priority, research ‘to quantify the extent and nature of badger visitation
of farm buildings and food stores, including silage clamps, and to determine the extent of close contact
between badgers and cattle in the field’ in order to build an evidence base on which exclusion strategies
could be developed.
6.2 Current and recent research
The current research portfolio includes four projects which will significantly take forward our understanding
of behavioural and economic considerations.
6.2.1 SE3039 ‘Identification of changes in individual and global farmer behaviour relating to the movement
and management of cattle in the UK with particular reference to the introduction of bTB control
measures’. This project is trying to identify farmer behavioural responses to changes in the regulations
on cattle movements, particularly relating to pre-movement testing. The two-track approach is, first,
to analyse trends in movement at an industry level by applying network analysis to cattle movement
data and then correlate points of change with changes in the regulatory environment; and second, to
undertake interviews with individual farmers to explore the motivations and other factors that influence
their behavioural response to specific bTB control measures. A strength of this project is its use of
robust methodologies in network analysis and social psychology, and its consequent combination of
quantitative and qualitative data and methods of analysis. This is the only Defra-funded study relating
to bTB that focusses on behaviour and behaviour change among livestock farmers.
6.2.2 SE3117 ‘Cost–benefit analysis of badger control’. Although this is listed as current, it was due to be
completed in May 2007. There is a final report on the initial 2 month phase, which was designed to
establish the feasibility or otherwise of a cost–benefit model combining outputs from previous studies
by CSL and by the University of Reading (SE3112: ‘Assessment of the economic impacts of bTB and
alternative control policies’). This initial work demonstrated that it is possible to incorporate outputs
from the stochastic spatial simulation model of badger TB produced by CSL into a cost–benefit analysis
model developed by the University of Reading. The resulting ‘TB CBA meta-model’ was then to be
developed further and used to assess a wider range of control scenarios.
6.2.3 SE3119 ‘An experiment to assess the cost-effectiveness of farm husbandry manipulations to reduce
risks associated with farmyard contact between badgers and cattle’. This builds on the findings of
SE3029 and subjects ‘two broad husbandry practices’ to reduce contact between badgers and cattle in
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