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THE BADGER CULL

5 August 2011
Brian May said;
"This is one of the clearest honest accounts of what is going on I have seen."

TALKWILDLIFE.COM (WILDLIFE WHISPERER - main site is at http://www.wildlifewhisperer.tv )
Posted by Jonathan Proud on July 23, 2011 at 11:11am in Mammals

I really feel sorry for the farmers. By pressing for a badger cull, they’ve shot themselves in the foot. They need a solution to the problem of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle and a badger cull is not it. 

“The best prospect for control of TB in the British herd is to develop a cattle vaccine” – Krebs Report (1997)

“A cattle vaccine against bTB should be developed as a matter of priority and all legislative hurdles overcome to enable this to become the long term solution to bTB.” - The Wildlife Trusts 

The problem is that vaccinated cattle test positive for bTB under the current procedures, which are regulated by the EU. Defra aim to have a licensed cattle vaccine and a workable test (DIVA) available by 2012. However, changing the EU procedures will not be completed until 2015. This is not good enough. 

A lot of time and money has been spent on the proposal to vaccinate the badgers. The practical difficulties of capturing them all for vaccination make this unworkable. Rounding up a herd of cattle for vaccination should be considerably easier. When the cattle stop passing bTB to the badgers, it will die out completely or at least return to naturally low levels in the badger population.

Shooting badgers will not be easy. They are thick skinned animals with short legs, so do not present an easy target for a marksman. Many will go to ground injured and suffer a lingering death out of sight and unrecorded.

In response to the government’s public consultation on a badger control policy in 2010, 69% said no to culling.

A badger cull is a stop-gap measure to placate the farmers while a cattle vaccine is developed. It’s a response to the clamour that “Something must be done now”. The government are hoping that by the time its failure is apparent, the vaccine will be available. My hope and belief is that the public outcry will be so great that the cull will have to be abandoned.

In the 1970’s the government were culling grey seals, to placate the fishing industry. There was a public outcry. Ever since, the fishing industry has been in decline and the grey seals thriving. It was a great victory for the seals. It’s a lesson the farmers should heed.

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COMMENTS

Ron Bury on July 23, 2011 at 12:06pm

Hi Jonathan

I completely agree but one thing that has always intrigued me is why is the focus of bTB in the south west. I've recently been looking at the data for the spread of bTB since the late 60's and asked the NFU about this. So far all I've had is referrals to their web site at http://www.tbfreeengland.co.uk/ non of which offers an explanation, and I'm waiting for an answer to my latest email.

It seems to me that the increase in bTB is more attributable to cattle movements than anything else and that a bTB reservoir exists in Gloucestershire, Cornwall and Pembrokeshire. Is this an environmental issue of some kind in that part of the country.

The government seemed to have nearly got the disease under control by the late 60's. Did they not properly finish the job or were they missing something at the time.

Does anyone know more about this?  

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Jonathan Proud on July 23, 2011 at 12:38pm

That's a good question Ron. My first thought is that the south west is big on dairy farming and has a high cattle population. Pasture is good for badgers as well as cows. Farming here in East Yorkshire is mainly arable, so it's not a problem.

See  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/agriculture/char_farmrev4.shtml

It says "Dairy farming is common in the south-west and the west of England where the climate is warm and wet."

Distribution of farming in the UK

Map showing distribution of farming in UK

Map showing distribution of farming in UK

 

Ron Bury on July 23, 2011 at 1:06pm

Well a heavy stock population in a warm and wet environment is certainly an ideal breeding ground for bTB but I still wonder if they couldn't have done more in the 60's. 

It's definitely a problem associated with that part of the country and I think that tighter control of stock movements, certainly in that area, would go some way to mitigating the issue.

Personally I think they relaxed too soon when they thought it was under control before. I don't believe that persistent culling of badgers is a long term answer. They just end up being the fall guy for our mistakes.

In the highlands were I am stock and badger co-exist and the only outbreaks of bTB are further to the east in Aberdeenshire; and these are sporadic which is why I believe it's stock movement that spreads the disease.

We need to get our own house in order before we use wildlife as a cop-out.

 

Jonathan Proud on July 23, 2011 at 3:25pm

I agree absolutely. Here in East Yorkshire, a largely arable area, we have a good population of badgers but few cattle. The badgers are free of TB, which I think is an indication that in the South West it's the cattle that infect the badgers and not the other way round.

 

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And a short comment on WILD ABOUT BRITAIN
Stop The Badger Cull thread
moonpenny01 

I don't understand why the govt. doesn't read it's own stats. DEFRA stated in 2005 that for every £1 of benefit for the farmer, the taxpayer paid £2317. Why don't we just fund vaccination and be done? 

In 2007, DEFRA found that in addition to the feral badger reservoir, bTB was also found in deer, mice, otters, foxes, rats and moles. Are we going to cull these species too? 

The only time rates of TB consistently reduced was during WW2 when farmers double fenced hedgerows to prevent cows eating lush grass around badger latrines. 

Evidence produced by DEFRA (2007), consistently highlighted lack of biosecurity measures and poor husbandry practices as transmission routes. 

Spend the money on educating farmers and improving a vaccine, not eradicating yet another species.

 

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