THE fate of thousands of badgers across West Somerset appeared to have been sealed this week after the Badger Trust lost its Court of Appeal challenge against the Government's planned badger cull.

Free-running badgers could now be shot on farms across West Somerset within a matter of weeks, although animal rights campaigners have pledged to take their fight to Europe.

The district has been chosen as one of two pilot areas for a four-year Government-backed scientific study into the effect of culling badgers and the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.

The disease is estimated to cost the UK more than £100 million every year, but the Badger Trust had argued that the case used to justify the experiment was legally flawed.

But the trust's appeal against a High Court ruling, which upheld the Government's decision for the trial culls, was unanimously rejected by the Court of Appeal.

If official licences to shoot badgers are now issued as planned by Government agency Natural England, landowners and farmers could begin killing free-running badgers in a matter of weeks.

The exact location of the farms involved is being kept secret for fear of reprisals, although the names of two West Somerset farmers have already been linked to the pilot scheme on an anti-culling website.

Many farmers blame badgers for spreading TB to cattle, while some opponents to the cull claim badgers catch the disease from infected cows as cattle are known to contract the disease from contact with infected herds.

The Badger Trust, which represents about 60 voluntary badger groups, had accused the livestock industry of using badgers as a scapegoat and underestimating the risk of cattle-to-cattle transmission of bovine tuberculosis.

It said the problem should be dealt with through vaccination, but the Government maintained that vaccination was "not a sufficient response to the problem".

Plans to begin culling in Wales were recently abandoned in favour of a vaccination policy following the change of Welsh Assembly Government last year.

Defra estimated that nearly 25,000 cattle were slaughtered in England in 2010-11, at a cost of £91m to the taxpayer and said the disease was having a devastating impact on livestock farmers.

Under the Protection of Badgers Act, licences to kill the animals can be granted to "prevent the spread of disease".

Each of the proposed culling sites covers an area the size of the Isle of Wight and it is estimated 3,800 badgers could eventually be killed in each of the four years of the experiment.

A spokesman for Defra said the pilot culls would start "as soon as practical", most likely this autumn before the badger breeding season begins.

The spokesman added: "No-one wants to cull badgers, but last year bovine TB led to the slaughter of over 26,000 cattle and to help eradicate the disease it needs to be tackled in badgers."

Jeff Hayden of the Badger Trust said he was disappointed with the verdict.

He was also adamant a cull could exacerbate the situation by allowing badgers to roam from their settled territories over larger areas, while others would come in to take over culled land.

"[The verdict] hasn't changed the scientific facts at all.

"The majority of independent scientific opinion says the cull is unlikely to work and most probably will make matters worse," Mr Hayden said.