What's A Few Badgers Between Friends?

[AB Editor]

So, they're rolling out a badger cull trial in Gloucester...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23845851

... And there will be protests, naturally. Will you be joining them? Or do you think the cull trial is worthwhile?

[DJHawkes]

but the badgers have caught it because cattle have got it and not been inoculated.

[factor-fiction]

I thought a cattle vaccine wasn't available at present. I don't think it matters who is to blame- the cattle we eat or the badgers we think look cute, does it- the problem needs to be addressed sooner rather than later

[factor-fiction]

Sorry- got my dashes all mixed up there

[Prudie]

I think it's truly abominable and pointless. Just wish I had the gumption to go join the protesters and attempt to stop it.

[Old_Geezer]

As I understand it, it's available FF. Maybe not in the quantities required since those in the industry was so keen to go the slaughter route instead. The issue is selling the meat when it tests for TB even though it's the vaccine and safe. It's too much trouble to improve the laws etc.

[Prudie]

The badger is an indigenous species (what kind of nations cull their own wildflife?) and their numbers are not an issue at all - most of us only see them dead on the road. Cannot be compared with deer as their population has grown massively because of introduced species such as Sika. This is just the easy way out for farmers. I think it stinks.

[youngmafbog]

No, cattle vaccines are about 10 years away

http://news.sky.com/story/1133550/first-badger-cull-under-way-amid-protests

[Old_Geezer]

BCG could be used.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-diseases/a-z/bovine-tb/vaccination/cattle-vaccination/

[AB Editor]

"what kind of nations cull their own wildflife?"

I don't think we should be so precious. Is a cull the perfect solution? No, but might it work until a vaccine can be produced? Maybe? Maybe isn't so bad.

[shoota]

I can't think of a nation that doesn't cull their own wildlife.
Can you?

[jno]

that happened to my aunt too, Dot, surgery was part of the solution to TB in those days, so they could then remove the lung. She lost three quarters of a lung and then married a fellow patient who'd lost one and a quarter, so they had just the two lungs between them. The marriage lasted for many years until he drove into a tree, though.

I don't know if this is a practical treatment for badgers, however. Although it might be simpler just to cull the cattle, I suppose the farmers would only join the protests.

[viv38]

I'm with you Prudie 100%.

[tamborine]

like the exodus of the tasmanian devil badgers can be re-homed on an dedicated remote island. Is the Mull of Kintyre vacant ?

[Prudie]

"We" weren't being precious, I was apparently.
As far as I'm concerned there has been absolutely no definitive proof that badgers pass TB to cattle, in fact I've seen suggestion that cattle pass it to Badgers. I just find it abhorrent that killing them is accepted as a way to resolve an unproved problem - typical men all of you.

[mikey4444]

How do all the other countries in the world manage with their TB cases in cattle ?

[shoota]

By the mid-1970s the evidence that badgers played a significant role in infecting cattle was sufficiently strong that the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) began to kill badgers in areas where it was judged that they posed a threat to the health of cattle. This policy was highly controversial. Firstly, because the role of badgers in transmitting TB to cattle was not conclusive, and secondly because the badger is a protected species, and in addition many people considered the method of killing, using poison gas, to be unacceptable. Although gassing of badgers was subsequently halted on humane grounds, the effects of mass culling of badgers on the incidence of TB in cattle was monitored in some detail in certain areas. It was found that the number of cases of TB in cattle fell sharply during and after the badger-removal period, but eventually started to increase again after the culling of badgers was stopped. This was further evidence that TB infection in badgers plays a significant role in the spread of the disease to cattle.

Thats from here if you want to read it all:
http://www.nimr.mrc.ac.uk/mill-hill-essays/tuberculosis-in-man-cattle-and-badgers

[emmie]

5,000 so i heard, no i won't be joining the cull, i don't happen to agree with it.. then again i am not a farmer...

[DrFilth]

> Meat from cattle slaughtered after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is being sold for human consumption by Defra, the food and farming ministry has said. <

> "The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has confirmed there are no known cases where TB has been transmitted through eating meat and the risk of infection from eating meat, even if raw or undercooked, remains extremely low." <


from sky news report

[DrFilth]

link to report


http://news.sky.com/story/1109703/meat-from-diseased-cattle-sold-by-defra