The Government is committed to implementing its 25-year strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England. The strategy was published in 2014 and includes stricter cattle measures and badger vaccination and culling.
As part of the strategy there are three management zones (bovine TB risk areas) in England, reflecting regional variations in the epidemiology of the disease; the High Risk Area (HRA), the Edge Area and the Low Risk Area (LRA). Defra's holistic eradication strategy aims to control all routes of transmission of the disease; cattle-cattle, cattle-badger, badger-badger and badger-cattle, as well as spill-over into other susceptible species.
In February 2018, Defra’s Secretary of State commissioned an independent review of its bovine TB Strategy. The review was led and overseen by Professor Sir Charles Godfray, supported by a small working group. The review took place during spring and summer 2018 and reported to Ministers in October 2018. Defra is considering all of the options presented in the review report, and a Government response will be published in due course. The review report can be accessed on GOV.UK.
