I was pleased to read that plans to have a badger cull in England have been abandoned by the government and that they are now planning to go down the route of investing £30 million into the development of a bovine tuberculosis vaccine. Apparently the ruling does not apply to badgers in Wales though.
But I want to ask one naive question. Who is going to be vaccinated? The badgers or the cattle, because I can't envisage how anybody would get close enough to the badgers to vaccinate them.
Badger cull has been abandoned
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alan refail
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Primrose
Still plenty of arguments in Wales.
http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Agr ... 1&id=11626
I'm not sure where I stand regarding badgers. They are not the cuddly wee creatures of the story books, after all. And, anyway, I rejoice at the absence of the equally "cuddly" fox this year. All poultry safe so far.
Still plenty of arguments in Wales.
http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Agr ... 1&id=11626
I'm not sure where I stand regarding badgers. They are not the cuddly wee creatures of the story books, after all. And, anyway, I rejoice at the absence of the equally "cuddly" fox this year. All poultry safe so far.
"leaving sick badgers to crawl around, excluded... then slowly dying, riddled with lesions that start in the bladder..... we should be acting responsibly towards our wild animals, but the taxpayers are footing a £100 million bill each year for culling infected cattle, and this bill looks set to rise inexorably higher. This situation cannot continue."
Since last Saturday we have been hearing 'fireworks' at night about every 15 minutes.
I suspect that certain farmers are ignoring the law and the last thing I would want to be in this area is a Badger!
With regards to looking after our wildlife. It has simple escaped their notice that Badgers will eat the eggs of ground laying birds and attack any nest up to at least three feet up a hedge.
It is said that pesticides are responsible for the demise of certain birds such as the Lapwing yet there are vast tracts of land hereabouts that do not receive any form of chemical treatment which in the recent past housed quite large flocks of Lapwing which are no longer seen. The Badgers in this area are completely out of control with a huge population increase. Bovine TB in Dairy Herds is at an all time high and this in many cases is in 'Closed Herds'
and in one case locally no cattle have been brought onto that farm for more than 60 years. At the last testing it had 12 reactors. How is this? According to the powers that be BTB is spread through the movement of cattle. In that herd they are born on the farm and the only time they are moved is to go for slaughter! Strangely there are three Badger sets withing walking distance of that farm.
I feel that Hilary Benn has ducked the issue because his party in government are in dire straights in the popularity polls. The outcome doesn't help farmers and it certainly doesn't do anything for Badgers.
As I see it all it is doing is making sure that our taxes are going to increase due to poor legislation and poor government.
JB.
I suspect that certain farmers are ignoring the law and the last thing I would want to be in this area is a Badger!
With regards to looking after our wildlife. It has simple escaped their notice that Badgers will eat the eggs of ground laying birds and attack any nest up to at least three feet up a hedge.
It is said that pesticides are responsible for the demise of certain birds such as the Lapwing yet there are vast tracts of land hereabouts that do not receive any form of chemical treatment which in the recent past housed quite large flocks of Lapwing which are no longer seen. The Badgers in this area are completely out of control with a huge population increase. Bovine TB in Dairy Herds is at an all time high and this in many cases is in 'Closed Herds'
and in one case locally no cattle have been brought onto that farm for more than 60 years. At the last testing it had 12 reactors. How is this? According to the powers that be BTB is spread through the movement of cattle. In that herd they are born on the farm and the only time they are moved is to go for slaughter! Strangely there are three Badger sets withing walking distance of that farm.
I feel that Hilary Benn has ducked the issue because his party in government are in dire straights in the popularity polls. The outcome doesn't help farmers and it certainly doesn't do anything for Badgers.
As I see it all it is doing is making sure that our taxes are going to increase due to poor legislation and poor government.
JB.
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PLUMPUDDING
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What is wrong with vaccinating the cows against it? We were all vaccinated against TB at school - not that we enter the food chain!
What do they do in other countries?
I know some countries shoot everything that moves. When we were in Sicily the only wild animals or birds we saw were stuffed ones in a gun shop.
What do they do in other countries?
I know some countries shoot everything that moves. When we were in Sicily the only wild animals or birds we saw were stuffed ones in a gun shop.
A bovine TB vaccination will not be effective in badgers until at least 2020, the former president of the British Cattle Veterinary Association has warned.
While a badger vaccine is expected to be developed by 2014, it would take more than five years before any effects would be seen, BCVA's Andy Biggs said.
"Badgers infected with TB prior to vaccination will still be able to transmit the disease to cattle. So until 2020 it is unlikely we will see any positive effects from controlling the disease with a vaccine," he said.
DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn announced on Monday (7 July) he would make £20m available to develop a TB vaccine over the next three years.
This was in addition to the £18m which has already been invested over the last decade.
While a badger vaccine is expected to be developed by 2014, it would take more than five years before any effects would be seen, BCVA's Andy Biggs said.
"Badgers infected with TB prior to vaccination will still be able to transmit the disease to cattle. So until 2020 it is unlikely we will see any positive effects from controlling the disease with a vaccine," he said.
DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn announced on Monday (7 July) he would make £20m available to develop a TB vaccine over the next three years.
This was in addition to the £18m which has already been invested over the last decade.
Hi Paul,
How many times have I heard that money is to be set aside for a TB vaccine yet still no vaccine!
This particular government will go down in history as the enemy of the farmer and by so being traitors to the people they are supposed to be protecting!
We need action not very cheap words!
JB.
How many times have I heard that money is to be set aside for a TB vaccine yet still no vaccine!
This particular government will go down in history as the enemy of the farmer and by so being traitors to the people they are supposed to be protecting!
We need action not very cheap words!
JB.
From a bovine tb site, just when you thought it was just about killing those cuddly badgers
We have recently obtained the following memo from DEFRA, which indicates that Russia is no longer prepared to take our milk products because of our TB status. How long is it before the rest of the EU shuts down on us, in order to allow other member states to export to Russia, on the basis that, as long as the UK is allowed unrestricted access to the EU Single Market, produce can flow through to Russian unchecked?
Not so much chickens as Badgers coming home to roost... if that's what they do.
We have recently obtained the following memo from DEFRA, which indicates that Russia is no longer prepared to take our milk products because of our TB status. How long is it before the rest of the EU shuts down on us, in order to allow other member states to export to Russia, on the basis that, as long as the UK is allowed unrestricted access to the EU Single Market, produce can flow through to Russian unchecked?
Not so much chickens as Badgers coming home to roost... if that's what they do.
PCR test for use on environmental samples and excretions collected from badgers "ruled out" except in laboratory
In the course of his answers to Jim Paice, Jonathan Shaw said yesterday (Hansard)
"....while the PCR test specific for M. bovis was found to be only 50 per cent. as sensitive as the gold standard of culture, the sensitivity of the M. tuberculosis complex PCR test (i.e. a less specific PCR able to detect mycobacteria that are members of the M. tb complex) was increased from 70 per cent., to 90 per cent., by the end of the project. While such low sensitivities for M. bovis detection rules out the use of this PCR test for use on environmental samples and excretions collected from badgers, with further development and evaluation this test could be used in the laboratory to achieve faster confirmation and subsequent tracing of bTB infection in slaughterhouse cases.
Mr Shaw said that work funded by DEFRA " to validate the PCR test developed by Warwick University to detect M. bovis in the environment is ongoing" and added that a final report on the work will be published following its completion in April 2010. He said,
"If it is shown to be usable as a robust practical field test, consideration of its potential use in any bTB control policy will need to take account of the results of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, which showed that localised culling was associated with an increase in cattle herd TB breakdowns due to the perturbation effect on badgers and increased transmission of bTB."
It is difficult to speak rationally about such an answer - particularly one that refers to a report that will not be published until 2010 when the disease is, as we see below, wreaking such havoc every single day.
In the course of his answers to Jim Paice, Jonathan Shaw said yesterday (Hansard)
"....while the PCR test specific for M. bovis was found to be only 50 per cent. as sensitive as the gold standard of culture, the sensitivity of the M. tuberculosis complex PCR test (i.e. a less specific PCR able to detect mycobacteria that are members of the M. tb complex) was increased from 70 per cent., to 90 per cent., by the end of the project. While such low sensitivities for M. bovis detection rules out the use of this PCR test for use on environmental samples and excretions collected from badgers, with further development and evaluation this test could be used in the laboratory to achieve faster confirmation and subsequent tracing of bTB infection in slaughterhouse cases.
Mr Shaw said that work funded by DEFRA " to validate the PCR test developed by Warwick University to detect M. bovis in the environment is ongoing" and added that a final report on the work will be published following its completion in April 2010. He said,
"If it is shown to be usable as a robust practical field test, consideration of its potential use in any bTB control policy will need to take account of the results of the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, which showed that localised culling was associated with an increase in cattle herd TB breakdowns due to the perturbation effect on badgers and increased transmission of bTB."
It is difficult to speak rationally about such an answer - particularly one that refers to a report that will not be published until 2010 when the disease is, as we see below, wreaking such havoc every single day.