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Badger cull 'a mistake' | Government set to give go-ahead

 

EDITORIAL COMMENT:   SIgnificant????  Lord Krebs saying its a bad idea !!!!  Will Government listen to him???

Peter Kendall tries to reassure that it's only a limited and humane cull that is proposed.  (Sadly a dead badger is a dead badger - not slightly dead).

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TELEGRAPH
Badger cull 'a mistake' suggests Government adviser
11 July 2011 by Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent

Killing badgers in England would be a ‘mistake’, according to Lord Krebs, one of the Government’s key adviser on the scientific merit of going ahead with a cull.

A vaccine to stop badgers spreading disease to cattle is at least a decade away, the Government has warned, as the country moves closer to a cull of the protected woodland creatures.
The controversial policy is led by scientific evidence that 
controlling badgers will stop them spreading bovine 
tuberculosis to cattle Photo: ALAMY

Professor Lord John Krebs, a world expert in zoology, originally commissioned the research into whether culling badgers will stop the animals spreading cattle disease.

He said the research showed that killing 70 per cent of badgers in a restricted area only reduced incidence of bovine Tuberculosis by 16 per cent.

Asked if it would be a mistake to go ahead with a cull, he replied yes.

“I do not think culling is an effective policy,” 

he said. “Because if you look at the evidence from the [scientific] trial you will see that if you cull intensively for at least four years you will have a net benefit of reducing TB in cattle of 12 to 16 per cent, so you leave 85 per cent of the problem still there having gone to huge amount of trouble to kill a huge amount of badgers. It just does not seem to me an effective way of controlling the disease.”

Lord Krebs conducted a major review into badgers and bovine TB in the 1990s and recommended the trial cull, which took place over the following 10 years.

He is now advising the Government onclimate change but has remained interested in the policy and signed a recent paper on the merits of a cull.

"It does have an effect if you do it large scale over the long term, but it is a small effect," he said.

However Peter Kendall, the President of the National Farmers Union, said even a small reduction would stop the spread of the disease.

Last year 25,000 cows were killed as part of TB control after an increase in the disease. Bovine TB cost the taxpayer £90 million in 2010/11.

He pointed out that a cull could be done at low cost and that rates of bovine TB are still falling in areas where a cull has been trialled. He said rates of TB have done down by a third in Ireland where a cull has been carried out.

"If we do not make this difficult decision we will have a job to hold on to our dairy industry,” he said.

Caroline Spelman, the Environment  Secretary, is due to announce a decision on a cull by the end of the week.

It is understood the Cabinet is still debating the issue as there are fears a cull would lead to a public backlash because of protests over animal rights.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said: “Bovine TB is having a devastating effect, with nearly 25,000 cattle in England slaughtered last year because of it. It is a complex and sensitive issue and we will announce a comprehensive and balanced TB Eradication Programme for England by the end of July.”

COMMENT

Bryan Hemming
Perhaps farmers should stop putting antibiotics  in cattle feed as a first measure to prevent the spread of TB. Like many other bacteria, it has been well-known for years that TB bacteria easily develop immunity to antibiotics, especially when misused or overused. Cattle are regularly given antibiotics to prevent mastitis, an inflammation of the breast tissue. Antibiotics should never be administered as a preventive, only as a cure. And even then with extreme care.

It could be argued the cows are spreading immune bacteria to badgers, who carry it to other cow herds, rather than the other way round.

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BIRMINGHAM POST
Government set to give go-ahead for UK badger cull
Jul 11 2011

The Government is set to announce whether it will allow a cull of badgers to tackle TB in cattle in the coming days, as farmers insist it would not be a “free-for-all” on killing the protected animals.

Ministers first proposed culling badgers last year as part of a package of measures to address spiralling rates of TB in cattle, but a final announcement on the scheme has been held up amid legal wrangling over a similar cull in Wales.

It appears likely the move will give the green light for farmers to cull badgers, after experts, including its chief scientist and chief vet, concluded that co-ordinated and sustained culling could reduce TB rates in cattle.

Farmers want to see a policy to control badgers, which can spread TB to livestock, to tackle a problem they say is one of the greatest threats currently facing beef and dairy farmers, particularly in areas of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

The scheme could allow farmers to shoot free-running badgers, rather than trap and shoot them, as it is a much cheaper option for landowners who will be asked to bear the costs of a cull.

The RSPCA warned last week that a cull would not work, and licensing farmers and landowners to carry out the scheme could prove inhumane.

But farmers are keen to point out that any cull would be carried out by people who were trained, monitored and licensed according to strict conditions.

The National Farmers’ Union has been drawing up plans that would - if the cull is given the green light - allow groups of farmers to band together to form companies which can then apply for a licence and contract out the cull for a sufficiently large area to ensure it is effective.

The companies will ensure that farmers contribute their share of the money, stay in the scheme for the required four years and have some measure of anonymity against animal rights extremists who may try and target them.

NFU president Peter Kendall said: “If given the go-ahead any badger control policy will be implemented by fully trained professionals.

“People must move away from the idea that a green light will mean farmers having a free-for-all. This is simply not the case.

“This has never been about eradicating badgers. This is about disease control.

“The science has demonstrated in its most recent reports that culling badgers will help reduce the incidence of bovine TB in cattle and the costs have been brought under control by industry looking at best practice and controlled humane shooting.”

And he said: “Most right-minded people want a solution to the devastating impact bovine TB has; on our farming families, on the stress caused to cattle forced into testing regimes every 60 days and for badgers that also carry bovine TB.”

 

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