That damned bullock

[Jo Kemp]

Don't bother with the exemption or name change - the appeal has won and Shambi (or whatever) will be killed.....2 other animals had inconclusive tests
Think the judge knew what we were thinking! Perhaps he read the site?
It had to be one rule for all on this ... should vaccinate in the hot spots and vaccinate the badgers too to reduce and contain TB ... would that help Duncan? We'll never persuade this government to kill the badgers.

[Broomcroft]

Is there a vaccine?

[Duncan MacIntyre]

No I don't think there is any effective animal vaccine for TB.

Why are all the badger enthusiasts so keen on preserving the miserable life of TB infected badgers? What they should be looking at is a way of culling as humanely as possible and keeping recolonising badgers out of infected setts. It would be a massive task and probably only able to be done on an area by area basis, but if we do not grasp the nettle soon the battle will be truly lost.

The problem is that the government really does not give a hoot for farming, and has very poor understanding of anything rural. Most country folk know that healthy badgers are very little problem, we need to work at it to get over to those who think all badgers are sacred that the infected ones are living and dying in misery, and ensuring that successive generations do likewise. It is a serious welfare issue which is not being addressed.

The other nettle to grasp is that badgers may be a local reservoir of infection, but they do not spread TB over large distances. They are not to be seen going along motorways in buses or lorries, in caravans or even hitching lifts. The movement of the current TB problem into new areas is a cattle movement problem, and the farming community should grasp the nettle of introducing movement restrictions from areas of higher to areas of lower risk. This would not mean that those in areas of high risk were at a permanent standstill - they just would only be able to move to areas of equal risk. There might be justification for intermediate areas, able to move to high risk but not low risk areas, and of course low risk areas who would be able to take movements from other low risk areas but not intermediate or high. Movement from low to intermediate or high risk would be ok. This would of course be very unpopular, but so is badger culling - maybe some cross-battle ground bargaining could be done.

Sadly I think it will take such draconian measures to undo all the damage done since the mid 1970's when only a handful of parishes were affected. That is when the badger culling should have taken place, and total restriction on movement of live cattle out of the problem areas.

Sadly we prefer animal rights and European free trade laws to common sense and practicality.

Duncan

[Broomcroft]

I think that's the clearest and most pursuasive statement I've ever read about TB and badgers. And if published, or something like it, would convince a lot of people who hadn't thought about the plight of the badgers themselves.