Badger cull 'should be reconsidered' say 30 animal disease experts
The badger cull should be reconsidered by the Government.
That is the view of a group of professors from leading universities and zoological institutions across the UK who are urging the Government to reconsider the controversial plans for a cull to tackle bovine TB.
More than 30 animal disease experts, including the president of the Zoological Society of London and professors from Oxbridge and Imperial College London, have written a letter to the Observer which argues culling badgers could increase the problem of TB in cattle.
Professor Sir Patrick Bateson, a fellow of the Royal Society from the University of Cambridge, wrote: "The Government's TB-control policy for England includes licensing farmers to cull badgers. As scientists with expertise in managing wildlife and wildlife diseases, we believe the complexities of TB transmission mean that licensed culling risks increasing cattle TB rather than reducing it.
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"Even if such increases do not materialise, the Government predicts only limited benefits, insufficient to offset the costs for either farmers or taxpayers.
"Unfortunately, the imminent pilot culls are too small and too short term to measure the impacts of licensed culling on cattle TB before a wider roll-out of the approach.
"The necessarily stringent licensing conditions mean that many TB-affected areas of England will remain ineligible for such culling. We are concerned that badger culling risks becoming a costly distraction from nationwide TB control."
He said the group of scientists believe that culling badgers "is very unlikely to contribute to TB eradication" and they "urge the Government to reconsider its strategy".
Yesterday David Heath, minister of state for agriculture and food, said the badger cull would be a "contribution towards bearing down on the disease".
Mr Heath told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The evidence that we have, the scientific support we have, suggests that a cull of the sort that we are proposing would be a contribution towards bearing down on the disease.
"It's not the answer in itself, there are lots of other things that we have to do – we have to continually improve bio-security, we have to continually make sure that we reduce cattle-to-cattle infection – but as part of a tool box of things that we can do, this is certainly an effective part."
Mr Heath said 26,000 cattle were slaughtered last year and the pilot culls in the chosen areas of west Somerset and Gloucestershire would potentially see 500 to 800 badgers killed each year in each of those areas.
He said the culls would "almost certainly" take place before the end of the year and expressed his support for a possible future vaccination programme.
"I am very clear that if we had a vaccination programme which could work in the circumstances which we have, we would take it. But the fact is we only have a badger inoculation at the moment where badgers actually have to be caught, trapped and then released, and that has to be done every year, which I think is not practicable over a wide area," he said.
Comments
by 2ladybugs
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:38PM
“Ha!ha!ha!ha!......... hilarious. I must go and break open a bottle of Dom Perignon to salute you both.......ha!ha!ha!.”
by eyeopener
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:37PM
“@2ladybugs Not 'narked' just surprised that you think we are all going to swallow that twaddle forever, but if your mittyesque fantasy helps maintain your equilibrium.... :)))”
by Spud0
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:36PM
“"A EUROPEAN task force of scientific experts has criticised the Welsh Government's decision to vaccinate rather than cull badgers to control bovine TB, the Farmers' Union of Wales has revealed"
This refers to the REPORT OF THE "BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS "SUB-GROUP Meeting held in
The United Kingdom 27-28 March 2012
This is only a sub group meeting report with the objective of making recommendations on how to make TB control successful. The sub-group meetingis attended by DEFRA and its' European equivalents, who toe their governments line and a minority of farming industry experts including vets who are largely for the cull whatever the scientific evidence. The sub group report was totally one sided and did not invite the animal disease experts and other academics that reported their scientific evidence showed a badger cull would not work.”
by 2ladybugs
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:32PM
“......and of course I expect nothing less from eyeopener.........you too can follow the same route.
:))))))))) goodnight xxxxxxxxxxxx”
by 2ladybugs
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:29PM
“@Witchinana
Yes probably but I am working and getting paid for it so if you don't mind I will keep sticking my oar in........thank you for your kind words.
You do the same with my sincerest regards. :))~~~~~
Funny I can always tell from comment,s in whichever newpapers I read, when people are getting narked. Water off a ducks back I am afraid so you can chuck whatever you like at me.........oh dear, has that burst your bubble :p))))))))))))”
by eyeopener
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:25PM
“@Witchinana Ooooh a classic! :))))”
by Witchinana
Sunday, October 14 2012, 10:14PM
“@2ladybugs why don't you sail away on the houseboat you live on within your own alimentary canal? Translates as you are so up yourself.”
by eyeopener
Sunday, October 14 2012, 9:26PM
“@2ladybugs
More faulty science?
Apparently these 'experts' reported on the 28th March after a meeting opened by David Calpin, programme manager for the bovine TB programme in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (Defra).
This learned body stated that the meeting took place at Worchester (sic). Yes! They don't even know the name of the place they all met at, but somehow they are all qualified to tell 30 UK animal disease experts, including the president of the Zoological Society of London and professors from Oxbridge and Imperial College London, that THEY have got it all wrong! http://tinyurl.com/8esb3cd
If this report was so authoritative why didn't the Farmers Union of Wales mention this before? One gets a feeling of Deja Vu where pharmaceutical companies draft 'research' to suit their purposes and supress any studies that do not produce the 'right' results.”
by RyanD
Sunday, October 14 2012, 9:02PM
“I really don't understand how pro cull people see everything these days. They have so utterly lost the scientific argument and worst of all, for farmers, the moral connection with the British people.
The cull idea has done more damage for British farming than anything else could have done. I sincerely hope that pro cull farmers all go out of business.
It is clear that dairy farming for so many farms isn't economically viable, so the whole industry should be reformed. Govt should offer farmers who can't make ends meet a nice bail out, farmer can sit on the beach, people reclaim the land and turn it into nature reserves.
Farmers have basically exposed the worn out 1950s mindset and economic reality of British farming, and the worst in the Tory Party. The badger cull has also made millions more aware of the badgers themselves, who people now want to protect even more.
I say this from a strong Gloucestershire farming background.”
by 2ladybugs
Sunday, October 14 2012, 7:05PM
“A EUROPEAN task force of scientific experts has criticised the Welsh Government's decision to vaccinate rather than cull badgers to control bovine TB, the Farmers' Union of Wales has revealed.
The FUW says a report by the European Commission's bTB sub-group – comprising veterinary experts from across the European Union – states: "There is no scientific evidence to demonstrate that badger vaccination will reduce the incidence of TB in cattle.
"However, there is considerable evidence to support the removal of badgers in order to improve the TB status of both badgers and cattle."
According to the report, UK politicians "must accept their responsibility to their own farmers and taxpayers as well as to the rest of the European Union and commit to a long-term strategy that is not dependent on elections".
It also states: "The Welsh eradication plan will lose some impetus as badger culling will now be replaced with badger vaccination.
"This was not part of the original strategy that consisted of a comprehensive plan that has now been disrupted."
The FUW claims the report's conclusions confirm that Wales' TB eradication programme has been severely compromised and reflects what the union has been saying regarding badger culling for the past decade.
FUW TB spokesman, Carmarthen dairy farmer Brian Walters, said: "More than five years ago, the FUW wrote to the European Commission to highlight these concerns and asked that Europe properly analyse the science and take a robust approach to the UK's failure to tackle TB in badgers.
"At last, the scientific experts have not only come out and supported what we have been saying all along but they have also effectively slammed the Welsh Government for making policies based upon elections, rather than tackling disease.”