Saturday, September 02, 2017
More evidence why a badger cull is not the answer to bTB
The New Statesman reports on new techniques that once more underlines why the UK Government's so-called solution to bovine TB is flawed and unnecessary. The science as proven by the Krebs report has already demonstrated the ineffectiveness of a cull, now an experiment on a farm in Devon has pointed to the most effective way of tackling the disease in cattle.
They say that the Save Me Trust, instead of using the government’s current method, are deploying a three-part testing system which has allowed them to identify and isolate infected cows more accurately and quickly:
“We can do incredible things now with computers and all the knowledge that we have. Yet we’re still using a decades-old test for TB on cattle: it’s pathetic,” says the trust's Anne Brummer, who persuaded Defra to allow the project.
Brummer believes that with better testing, killing badgers will become an irrelevance. Badgers around the farm have tested TB-positive, she says, yet since they have comprehensively cleared the disease from the cattle herd it has not returned.
But how can Brummer be confident that the badgers won’t one day transfer the disease back? Because, she says, even though badgers can catch TB from cattle they can’t keep it alive for nearly as long. That appears to explain why a 1970s outbreak in Cheshire which must have also spread to the local wildlife was successfully eradicated by dealing solely with the infected cattle.
If Brummer’s conclusions are correct then many of the so-called “clear” herds that the NFU claims have contracted the disease afresh from neighbouring cattle or wildlife, may simply have been carrying un-detected strains within them all the time.
The report concludes that there is an urgent need for Defra to publish more information about the impact of the present, cull-inclusive, policy. They say that the Welsh government is already looking at the new program of improved testing. But the entire UK must work more closely together if the disease is to be controlled.
Some of us have been arguing for a more effective testing regime for some time. It is interesting though how this regime proves that badgers are not the unwitting villains in this saga that some make them out to be.
They say that the Save Me Trust, instead of using the government’s current method, are deploying a three-part testing system which has allowed them to identify and isolate infected cows more accurately and quickly:
“We can do incredible things now with computers and all the knowledge that we have. Yet we’re still using a decades-old test for TB on cattle: it’s pathetic,” says the trust's Anne Brummer, who persuaded Defra to allow the project.
Brummer believes that with better testing, killing badgers will become an irrelevance. Badgers around the farm have tested TB-positive, she says, yet since they have comprehensively cleared the disease from the cattle herd it has not returned.
But how can Brummer be confident that the badgers won’t one day transfer the disease back? Because, she says, even though badgers can catch TB from cattle they can’t keep it alive for nearly as long. That appears to explain why a 1970s outbreak in Cheshire which must have also spread to the local wildlife was successfully eradicated by dealing solely with the infected cattle.
If Brummer’s conclusions are correct then many of the so-called “clear” herds that the NFU claims have contracted the disease afresh from neighbouring cattle or wildlife, may simply have been carrying un-detected strains within them all the time.
The report concludes that there is an urgent need for Defra to publish more information about the impact of the present, cull-inclusive, policy. They say that the Welsh government is already looking at the new program of improved testing. But the entire UK must work more closely together if the disease is to be controlled.
Some of us have been arguing for a more effective testing regime for some time. It is interesting though how this regime proves that badgers are not the unwitting villains in this saga that some make them out to be.
