Understanding badger social structure is essential for designing humane and effective disease management, as disruption of established social groups has complex welfare and epidemiological consequences.
Badger social complexity has important implications for both welfare and disease management. Culling that kills some but not all members of a social group causes social disruption affecting surviving animals' ranging behavior and stress levels. The perturbation effect - increased ranging and social mixing after group disruption from culling - has been documented to worsen bovine TB spread compared to no intervention in some circumstances. Vaccination programs that capture, vaccinate, and release badgers preserve social group integrity, producing better welfare outcomes for individual badgers and potentially better disease management outcomes. Understanding welfare and epidemiology together strengthens the case for vaccination over culling.