Godfray Review 2025: Progress or Missed Opportunity on Bovine TB?

The latest Godfray review offers some positive suggestions, including increased cattle testing and improved gamma interferon tests. However, we are overall disappointed by the review’s lack of ambition.

We support the call for a significant step change, as outlined by Godfray et al., to ensure that England is TB-free by 2038. The focus should be on eradicating the disease rather than merely managing it. 

However, Badger Trust believes the report has missed an opportunity to tackle critical issues, such as controlling Bovine TB in cattle herds by mandating enhanced testing methods and increasing testing frequency more widely.

Godfray questions whether achieving Bovine TB-free status by 2038 is realistic, emphasising the need for improved cattle testing methods, the introduction of the BCG vaccine for cattle, and the establishment of a comprehensive risk-based trading policy.

Despite some progress since the first report in 2018, the Godfray report ultimately suggests that very little has changed, as evidenced by the helpful use of purple text in the summary to identify the updates.

Cattle Testing and Vaccination

Godfray highlights a number of key shortfalls with the current bTB strategy, including the need for further ownership of the problem by the livestock industry, lack of investment to tackle bTB by DEFRA/APHA, and increasing evidence of undiagnosed bTB infections in herds. 

“We find that bovine TB control is suffering from a lack of investment in DEFRA/APHA”  - Godfray, 2025

The authors support improved testing, including the use of interferon gamma in Official TB Free - Withdrawn (OTF-W) breakdown herds. But does this go far enough? Shouldn’t better tests be available or made mandatory for all herds, regardless of where they reside in the country? Maybe by upgrading the unreliable SICCT skin test nationally, we can detect and stamp out infection in herds faster. 

This stance contradicts DEFRA’s recent announcement that some farmers in High-Risk Areas can now access gamma testing, likely revealing that a portion of their cattle previously recorded as clear of Bovine TB are, in fact, Bovine TB-positive, leading to the implementation of control measures on their farms.

We support Godfray’s emphasis on the importance of vaccinating cattle to achieve the significant change proposed. However, vaccinating infected animals does not aid progress, which further highlights the urgent need for highly sensitive and reliable cattle testing.

"At present, 50% of herds that are cleared of infection suffer a further herd breakdown in the subsequent three years. We believe that in a large fraction of cases, this is due to infected animals in the herd that are not detected." - Godfray, 2025

Wildlife and bTB 

Despite there being no clear scientific proof that badgers are to blame for the spread of Bovine TB, we are surprised and disappointed that the Godfray panel continues to point the finger at them. The real problem remains within cattle herds, where the disease often goes undetected because of the limited tests currently approved by DEFRA.

Godfray also highlights the need for further investigation into other transmission pathways between cattle and other animals, including deer, wild boar, and non-bovine livestock. They suggest that “particular attention should be paid to deer”, after increasing evidence of bTB prevalence in wild populations, and call for testing and genetic testing to understand transmission pathways. 

Godfray supports badger vaccination but raises concerns about its complexity and the task force’s ability to implement it effectively. Godfray acknowledges that Badger vaccination is difficult, time-consuming and expensive, but beneficial for protecting badgers from cattle disease. 

“Considerable effort will be required to scale-up [badger] vaccination so that it becomes a viable tool at scale.” - Godfray Review 2025

The ongoing mass culling of badgers is unjustifiable, resulting in unnecessary cruelty and substantial financial costs to taxpayers. The review should have advocated for an end to the badger culls, which distract from addressing the real causes of Bovine TB in cattle.

Where the evidence stands 

The report highlights the divide among stakeholders, including farmers, wildlife NGOs, and DEFRA/APHA. There is consensus among wildlife groups, as demonstrated by the Wildlife and Countryside LINK Bovine TB working group, which published its most recent position opposing badger culling in February 2025.

After twelve years and the culling of 247,880 badgers, the impact on bovine TB in cattle has been minimal. Although herd breakdowns have fallen during the period of industry-led culls, Godfray reiterates that it is impossible to know whether this is due to culling or to other measures introduced at the same time, especially the increased use of the more accurate interferon gamma cattle test. Overall, rates of the disease have shown only a limited decline, and the proportion of the English herd slaughtered early for meat because of bTB has stayed much the same since 2012. 

Moving Forward

We must address the issue of hidden infection within England’s cattle population. Even new calves can test positive if subjected to a highly accurate test.

DEFRA should consider adopting the proactive bovine TB policy implemented in Wales. This approach involves enhanced and more frequent testing, which has yielded positive results. They actively seek out the disease in cattle and are effectively identifying it. In contrast, England remains in denial about the undetected reservoir of disease, mainly due to the current low sensitivity of tests and infrequent testing.

It is beneficial for farmers to differentiate between infectious and infected cattle. Infectious animals must be removed and destroyed to prevent the spread of disease, while infected animals can be isolated and regularly tested to manage their health.

We are surprised that the current government has not distanced itself from the failures of the previous administration’s Bovine TB policies. This inaction has led the BERN convention to publicly hold them accountable for perpetuating policies they have previously deemed ineffective.

Instead of reevaluating the Bovine TB policy with fresh perspectives, the government has relied on academics who advised the previous government. The result is a report that is not significantly different from the first report in 2018. This outcome is not unexpected! 

The result has been the continuation of the futile culling of badgers and slaughter of cattle that could have been avoided.

Badger Trust believes it’s time to end the badger blame game and focus on solutions to the real issue: Bovine TB in cattle.