Pest Control and Ecology

Abstract

The discovery of tuberculous badgers in the early 1970s required Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's (MAFF) animal health researchers, veterinarians and policymakers to rapidly form new working partnerships in and outside of government. As recounted in Chap. 2, the first of these were colleagues within MAFF-the scientists and field officers of the Infestation Control Division (ICD). ICD was responsible for researching and controlling pest animals and other organisms which destroyed crops and stored food, threatening agricultural productivity and what we now describe as 'food security'. 1 For these reasons, even though ICD officers were co-located with veterinarians in MAFF's regional offices, they were usually involved with arable rather than livestock farming. Like the State Veterinary Service (SVS), ICD comprised a partnership of scientists in centralised research facilities-the Pest Infestation Control Laboratory (PICL)-and field-based Pests Officers located across the country. ICD was responsible for coordinating government 'pest control'-killing or preventing animals like rodents, birds and insects from eating, contaminating or damaging crops and food supplies. Unlike MAFF's veterinarians, ICD already knew badgers: as designated government experts on awkward animals, it was their job to decide which were officially 'pests' and what to do about them. From the late 1950s, ICD had received a steady stream of complaint letters about 'badger trouble'. When ICD investigated these complaints, they often found them to be overstated, and learned that badgers were very difficult to remove, leading them to conclude that the animals