A LEGAL battle has begun against controversial Government plans for a pilot badger cull in West Somerset to try and curb the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle.

The Badger Trust has taken its case to the High Court in London in a bid to block the cull by claiming the case used to justify the experiment is legally flawed.

The Government announced in December that West Somerset had been chosen as one of two pilot areas for a four-year scientific study.

The scheme would see landowners and farmers given permission to shoot free-running badgers, as some farmers blame the legally protected animals for spreading TB to cattle.

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

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

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".

Lawyers acting on behalf of the trust, told this week's two-day hearing in the High Court that the culls would not meet the strict legal test of "preventing the spread of disease" and could actually increase the spread of bTB.

David Wolfe QC, appearing for the trust, said each of the proposed culling sites covered an area the size of the Isle of Wight and estimated 3,800 badgers could eventually be killed in each of the four years of the experiment.

He told Mr Justice Ouseley the policy used to justify the cull was legally flawed because Defra was asking Natural England to issue shooting licences under section 10 (2) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1981.

That section's aim was to "prevent the spread of disease", he said.

He claimed shooting would result in badgers roaming from their settled territories over larger areas, while others would come in to take over culled land.

"Culling will actually cause the very problem section 1O(2) licences are supposed to prevent," Mr Wolfe argued.

He also accused Defra of failing to take into account the potential costs of setting up the two initial cull areas and said the Government had no legal power to give Natural England responsibility to issue licences for the cull.

A decision on whether to allow the cull is expected in the coming "days or weeks".