Loading ...Welsh Badger Cull Gets Go Ahead to Fight Bovine BT
Just a week after Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced a test vaccination project in six areas of England, beginning next year, the Welsh Assembly Government have announced that Wales will go ahead with a badger cull.
In England farmers and vets will be trained to trap and inject badgers with a test vaccine for bovine TB but it will take up to five years before we know how effective the vaccine is in halting the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
This will not be the magic wand that bovine TB requires, Hilary Benn acknowledged “Developing an effective vaccine for bovine TB is only half the challenge. The other is to deploy it effectively.”
The NFU, while welcoming the vaccination project, also said “there are major hurdles to overcome in terms of practicality, cost and legislation” and “Vaccination on its own will not stem the progression of bovine TB. It can only be seen as one of the tools in the box, a component of a multi-faceted approach to TB eradication.”
David Williams, Chairman of the Badger Trust said of the vaccination program: “We hope that this vaccine will give badgers further protection from bovine TB, which continues to be spread by cattle because the TB testing regime is inadequately enforced.”
Whilst DEFRA are focussing on a vaccine solution to the spread of the disease the Welsh Assembly Government, where the disease is particularly prevelent, feel more urgent action is required.
Announcing the cull, Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said that last year she announced her intention to implement a comprehensive, practical and proportionate programme of action in order to tackle the disease.
From October to December 2009 Wales is running the Health Check Wales – Bovine TB Eradication Programme which requires compulory testing of all cattle herds in Wales, irrespective of their current testing interval. 23 reactor herds have already been detected and the overdue herds for testing fell from 711 to 141 currently.
The number of cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB in 2008 rose 52% over the 2007 figures, at a cost of approximately £23.5 million.
Elin Jones said “The Welsh Assembly Government believes that this acceleration in incidence is unacceptable and unsustainable. In terms of the associated rise in compensation costs, it is expected that this year it will be £23.5 million, an increase of 47%. In the next financial year the cost to the taxpayer in TB compensation is likely to reach £30 million”.
Dr Glossop, the Welsh chief veterinary officer, said the cull area will be in North Pembrokshire but exact details of the cull area were still to be finalised. The aim of the cull is to kill about 80% of the badgers living in the area, estimated to be around 1000 animals in the cull area.
The Welsh Assembly Government decision is not without it’s critics. Wrexham Labour Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths said “The Government has built its case on science to justify this cull. However, the science being presented to the Welsh public is at best selective and at worst flawed. We can all be selective in evidence such as the report in 2006 which proved that cattle had actually given bovine TB to badgers. Or in recent months when the TB strain found in a veterinary nurse was found in cattle she had actually been testing.
Given this situation, shouldn’t the Government be placing considerably more emphasis on the fact that bovine TB can be controlled and indeed reversed, by enhanced testing of cattle and movement controls in those areas of greatest concern?
And in light of this, shouldn’t this cull be postponed?”
Elin Jones accepts that the scientific evidence is not “one hundred percent” and scientists did not agree on the evidence presented but insisted the cull would not be postponed.
Last year the National Trust declared that it would not co-operate with a planned cull of badgers in Wales unless forced to by law but Dr Glossop has now stated that those who opposed the cull could be compelled to let Welsh assembly contractors on to their land to trap and shoot badgers.
The explanation for the National Trusts stance on this issue can be found here.
This was never going to be a pretty fight and when science cannot pinpoint a certain cause for the spread of bovine tb it makes any choice arguable but one thing is for certain, this disease has to be tackled quickly in order to protect farm livestock and a healthy badger population.
Quite frankly arguing now about which animals transmits the disease to the other seems futile, the eradication of the disease must result in deaths in both our cattle and badger population.
If you are unaware of the history or issues surrounding the bovine tb problem in the UK this series of posts may help you:
Bovine TB and Badgers – Part 1
Bovine TB and Badgers – Part 2
Bovine TB and Badgers – Part 3
Bovine TB and Badgers – Conclusion
You can read more about the Welsh cull announcement here, for the Badger Trusts reaction go here and on the Farmers Weekly website.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
i guess i need to read your other posts, because i have no idea what badgers have to do with cattle. very interesting though. thanks for the info.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Hi John. It is the question of whether badgers transfer bovine tuberculosis to cattle or whether the massive spread of bTB in British herds is from cattle to cattle transfer. We know badgers carry the same strain of tb but there is much heated debate about the scientific evidence (which even scientists don’t agree on) as to how it is transfered .. are badgers the mode of infection or are they the victims of cattle transfer?
March 30th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Having seen the filthy squalid conditions that most cattle have to live for six months of the year, plus the terrible toll on cows being forced to constantly lactate while re impregnated – is it wonder cattle get the disease? On top of this animals are living on impoverished land lacking in vital nutrients like selenium. Thus far there seems to be no interest by farmers to clean up their act and improve the soil.
Farmers are killing off this planet and our younger generation are so wrapped up in their own selves they can’t see the harm being done in their name.
Can anyone remember the trillions of bugs that we used to have clean off our windscreens? Enough said!
March 31st, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Hi Judi
Whilst I agree conditions are a factor I don’t think the answer to bTB is to continue to force change on farming while ignoring other factors. We must tackle this problem from all sides.
I can only speak of farms I have lived on or visited in the North West and North East but must say very few are as you describe, although they do exist. Most farmers are responsible business owners and in order to have a successful farm you need healthy livestock and land. Crop rotation, re-introduction of nutrients and cattle shed ventilation and conditions are all important aspects of running a healthy farm and I know of few farmers (although I have met some) that would deliberately treat their land or livestock badly .. not through sentiment but through good business planning.
I agree in part that farming is killing off the planet, we just need to look at the wastelands of Africa to see that or the deforestation of the Amazon region, however without farming what would we eat? Isn’t the intensive farming driven by consumer demand? Isn’t our demand for exotic fruit and cheap imported meat driving intensive farming in other countries?
April 1st, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Hi Sally,
Animal farming is unnecessary because we can live a very healthy life on a vegan diet – I have for decades!
We should be growing more of our own ‘in season’ fruit and vegetables to sustain a healthy environment , which in turn will make for a healthier nation. It would also place less burden on the NHS. Not enough is being done to educate people on the dangers of eating intensively farmed animals. And what about the terrible suffering to animals destined for the meat trade? I once saw a calf trembling in the ring at a market. He was being prodded with a stick, it was heartbreaking to see how frightened he was. This poor animal had been taken off his mother at this market and sold to a separate buyer. I could see that she was upset too. It shocked me to the core seeing animals treated like mere fruit and veg.
Ignorant consumers and those willing to profit from misery are driving us all towards extinction and nobody seems to care!
April 1st, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Hi Judi
I started answering your comment but think the issue is worth a blog post itself, as we are getting off the topic of bovine TB. Shall do a post tonight.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hi Judi
Sorry it is such a long post but your comments brought me to the heart of what my blog is about and why I blog … http://www.country-couples.co.uk/blog/is-british-farming-necessary/ look forward to your comments.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
just to say that the Welsh Assembly Government is currenlty consulting on the culling / badger issues. for those of you that wish to contribute to the debate nows your chance
May 31st, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hi Jaynie
Thanks for letting us know, I have been without net connection for some time so not caught up with the news for a while.