Originally from: mona parr
                        
INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC REVIEW OF THE RANDOMISED BADGER CULLING TRIAL AND ASSOCIATED EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ANNOUNCED

Animal Health Minister Elliot Morley today announced the establishment of an independent scientific panel to review the randomised badger culling trial, as part of the wider review of Defra's science.
The audit panel will be chaired by Professor Charles Godfray FRS, director of the Natural Environment Research Council's Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College London.
The panel, which will comprise experts from the fields of veterinary and wildlife population epidemiology, applied statistics and population biology, will review the Progress of the randomised badger culling trial (RBCT) and associated Defra research. This work is being overseen by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG), which has been providing guidance and monitoring of the RBCT since its establishment in 1998.
The review's conclusions will inform the wider review of TB strategy, announced by Secretary of State Margaret Beckett at the NFU annual meeting in February.
Mr Morley praised the excellent work of the ISG in providing invaluable advice to Defra, but said it was timely to review independently the progress of the trial and the likely timescales to which it would provide results. "Bovine TB is a complex disease and an issue of real concern to farmers. This is why the RBCT trial was first established – to provide the scientific evidence to support a sustainable solution to this difficult problem which will allow farming and wildlife to exist side by side.
"The trial is designed to determine the impact that culling of badgers has on the incidence of cattle TB and also to provide scientific and epidemiological data on TB in wildlife and cattle.. It is because we recognise the importance of the answer to this question, to people on all sides of the debate, that I have asked for this review to be carried out.
"Audits of some parts of the trial have been done, covering the statistical power of the original trial design. But a comprehensive and independent review of progress has not yet been carried out and it is timely to do so. We have recently reviewed all the associated research projects and this independent review completes our work in the TB area."
Howard Dalton, Defra's Chief Scientific Advisor, said "Science plays a role in underpinning policies across the range of Defra's responsibilities, and in the area of animal health, Bovine TB is one of our principal challenges. "As Defra's Chief Scientific Adviser I believe that this review will help us take an independent look at where we stand in relation to meeting that challenge, and provide an opportunity to ask if there is more we could be doing."
Professor Godfray said: "Tuberculosis affecting cattle and wildlife is a very important farming and animal welfare issue, as well as a particularly challenging problem in ecological epidemiology.
"The ISG and Defra's Wildlife Unit staff have worked extremely hard in setting up the randomised trial and a series of other investigations, and the panel looks forward to helping decide how best to take this research forward."

Notes for editors
1. The terms of reference for the trial are as follows:
To review the progress of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial and to advise Defra on the prospects for the experiment achieving its objectives, and the likely time scales involved. This may include:

a) To assess the degree to which foot and mouth disease and other factors
that have affected the objectives, progress and running of the experiment
since its inception may have reduced the likely policy relevant scientific
information the trials will generate.

b) To review progress on, and prospects for, associated
field-epidemiological investigations into bovine TB such as the
case-control questionnaire and badger road-traffic accident survey.
c) To assess the degree to which Defra research on the ecological
epidemiology of bovine TB is and will provide the information required for
science-based policy on the control of this disease.

To comment on recent research that may influence the RBCT study on bovine epidemiology.
2. The make-up of the scientific panel is as follows:
Professor Charles Godfray, Chairman – (Director of the NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London) Population Biology Professor Robert Curnow – (University of Reading) Applied Statistics
Dr Christopher Dye – (World Health Organisation, Geneva) TB epidemiology Professor Dirk Pfeiffer – (Royal Veterinary College, London) TB veterinary epidemiology
Professor William Sutherland – (University of East Anglia) Wildlife population biology
Professor Mark Woolhouse – (University of Edinburgh) Veterinary population epidemiology
The secretariat will be provided by Dr David Cowan, a vertebrate wildlife biologist from the Central Science Laboratory, York. It will meet over the Summer and plans to report back later this year.
3. The Randomised Badger Culling was announced by MAFF in 1998 (<A HREF="http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/newsrel/1998/980817a.htm">PN 337/98</A>) following the Krebs report on Bovine TB 1997. The trial is based on 30 areas of 100 square kilometres which are grouped in triplets. These are randomly allocated to one of three treatments – proactive culling of badgers, reactive culling and no culling. It is overseen by the Independent Scientific Group on Bovine TB under the chairmanship of Professor John Bourne. The ISG produces an annual report to Defra on the progress of the trials.
4. Secretary of State Margaret Beckett announced a review of TB strategy in February (<A HREF="http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2003/030220d.htm">PN 63/03</A>). A consultation paper will be issued later this Summer. 5. The remainder of Defra's bovine TB research programmes was published in November 2002 and is available on the Defra website. It can be accessed at <A HREF="http://www.defra.gov.uk/science/tb_review/default.asp"> http://www.defra.gov.uk/science/TB_Review/default.asp</A>