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NEWS RELEASE" BADGER MYTHS FROM CUMBRIA

THE BADGER TRUST
5 May 2011

A Cumbrian dairy farm had a bovine tuberculosis breakdown in its “closed” herd last month, although any other outbreaks have been over 50 miles away [1]. Defra officials are tracing the source of the infection, but already some farming organisations are jumping to the conclusion that badgers and other wildlife could be implicated.

The Badger Trust emphasises that individual badgers stay within the territory of their social groups, usually about two miles in diameter. Also, they have evolved to dig their tunnels and are not built for ranging over distance.

A statement in the Bovine TB Blogspot on the “growing” epidemic in the UK [2] said the population of badgers in the affected area has been increasing, giving as evidence a perception that more are being killed on the roads. This is blatantly unscientific and fails to establish whether night-time traffic that causes the deaths, has also been increasing. There has been no estimate of the national population of badgers for 13 years [3], and ill-informed speculation of this kind is unhelpful.

The Trust challenges the characterisation of “closed” herds. The Cumbria News and Star reported [4] that Gonzalo Sanchez, north west veterinary lead for the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency had said: “It is a very closed herd and there has not been movements of animals off or onto the farm recently”. The Trust says that if any cattle are introduced or moved to and from the farm for any reason at any time - such as shows - the herd is not truly closed.

The location of the source of infection can be traced by identifying the strain of the TB bacillus involved and comparing it with samples from elsewhere. After the foot and mouth epidemic a decade ago the strain found in the north west matched one from the south, hundreds of miles away. Since then rigorous pre-movement testing has been introduced, although the standard SICCT “tuberculin” test can and does miss some infected animals.

The number of cattle slaughtered because of bovine tuberculosis, far from “growing”, has fallen steadily by 15 percent over the last two years, and by 44 percent in the intensive action area of Pembrokeshire, where culling is now proposed.

[1] Farmers’ Weekly. http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2011/04/27/126510/Officials-mystified-by-Cumbria-TB-case.htm

[2] http://bovinetb.blogspot.com/2011/04/cumbrian-tb-outbreak.html

[3] People’s Trust for Endangered Species, 1997.

[4] http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/cattle-culled-on-cumbrian-farm-in-suspected-bovine-tb-outbreak-1.830415?referrerPath=news

Jack Reedy
THE BADGER TRUST

 

 

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