in association with the Isaac Newton Institute programme: Infectious Disease Dynamics

The stakes are high. Cattle TB is currently costing UK taxpayers £90 million a year to control. Badger culling, as a method to control TB in cattle, is highly controversial. The science base relating to cattle TB control is often misunderstood (sometimes wilfully). This talk will review the science and the UK policies as they stand today. When should a policy be called “science-based”? And does “science-informed” policy deliver what it appears to promise?

Invited discussant:
Prof. James Wood (Cambridge), who will particularly address the issue of cattle controls.

The lecture will be chaired by Prof. Denis Mollison, who was the Independent Statistical Auditor to the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, and will be streamed live.

Christl Donnelly is Professor of Statistical Epidemiology in the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College, London. She was the deputy chair of the Independent Scientific Group that designed, oversaw and analysed the results of Defra's Randomised Badger Culling Trial (1997-2007).

James Wood is Alborada Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge.