Substantial problems remain with the Mills et al . (Mills CL, Woodroffe R, Donnelly CA. 2024 R. Soc. Open Sci. 11 , 240385. ( doi:10.1098/rsos.240385 ) and Mills CL, Woodroffe R, Donnelly CA. 2024 R. Soc. Open Sci. 11 , 240386. ( doi:10.1098/rsos.240386 )) re-evaluations of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) data. These include: (i) analysis of counts rather than rates; (ii) overfitting; (iii) modelling of ‘confirmed’ herd breakdowns rather than total herd breakdowns; and (iv) errors in the Bayesian analysis of the data. More plausible approaches to RBCT data analysis, including analysis of total breakdown incidence, strongly suggest that there is no effect of proactive badger culling on the herd incidence of bovine tuberculosis, either within cull areas or in neighbouring areas.