TB - Slaughter of Whole Herd?

mon said:
When they have finished there useful life, thats like saying we are all going to die sometime so whats the point of being born and living.
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Not quite the same. Surely cows for consumption go to slaughter when they are fairly young..? Correct me if wrong as I have very little idea but most farm animals don't get to live a very long life before slaughter surely so IMO it is not the same thing - they haven't had a useful life.
 
It also needs to be mentioned that farmers that do not have a TB problem are not really in favour of a cull and it is a concern that a cull might increase the cases of TB in cattle. This is because farmers with no problem well may have a local population of badgers that are TB free, a cull of badgers may well result in significant badger movement so that they might then end up with infected badgers.


I think that's the trouble really, there isn't an easy and certain solution.

I have been vaguely involved in some of the badger vaccine work but them being a wild animal obviously has it's own problems.
 
letrec_fan said:
Not quite the same. Surely cows for consumption go to slaughter when they are fairly young..? Correct me if wrong as I have very little idea but most farm animals don't get to live a very long life before slaughter surely so IMO it is not the same thing - they haven't had a useful life.
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Um yes some of the posters on this have even less understanding about agricultual practices
than I do!!! but the way I see it a farmer has cows some are femail and go on to produce caves and milk some breeds/ types are better at dairy like the frisian and others make better meat animals, . They all have a life span which is when they dont give milk or for beef
reach a certain weight they go off to slaughter,, if they catch TB then the usefull life is cut short and they dont produce what they were suposed to so food/milk isnt produced and the tax payer picks up some of the tab and the farmer loses breeding,milk or meat producing stock, this farmer didnt play by the rules ie testing to control the tb infected ones in his herd so the whole lot are now for the chop...
 
Badgers carry tb...the cattle version, M bovis and express symptoms of it.
In study where badgers were removed from a tb area the tb rate dropped significantly...Well in Ireland anyway..in the UK there was a remarkable amount of media attention and pressure from on different groups and politics involved.Which seems to have led to a different interpretation of the data..*rolls eyes

In Australia,where tb was sucessfully eradicated, they had to wipeout the wildlife host to remove disease successfully.
However as badgers,unlike the auzzys hosts,are a native species this isn't exactly an option?? control maybe but a total cull would be to far. Plus badgers aren't the only hosts some species of deer carry it to...Culling badgers might help to control tb but it cant be the only solution.

At the minute there is a hugh amount of research going on into TB.Vaccination of badgers,removal of badgers from tb areas,and research into blood tests and elizas to detect the bacteria are all ongoing.

Vaccination has issues as as someone already pointed out in the rules of international trade,which is vital to the farming community,animals needs to prove tb clean to be considered and animals which recieve vaccines come up as tb possitive.Plus even the vaccine for human tuberulosis only has a sucess rate of 70 percent or so.

At the minute cattle which react to the tb test are removed and slaughtered.The herd goes into lockdown for a set amount of days and is retested until the whole herd is deemed to be clear of tb.It is unusual that the whole herd be slaughtered..id imagine there is a lot more to this story posted on here.

The odd thing is that in England and Wales the rate of tb is increasing yearly..Theres a saying that "the only area of wales without tb is the area with no cattle in it".. but here in Ireland its quite static year after year...id be very interested to see if there is a matching growth in the badger populations?

I have a recent report from 2007 into tb control if anyone is interested in having a look...plus a couple of recent lectures from collage I can fall back on for detail and more depth of imfo if anyone wants to know more
 
I think badger culls would be effective only where there is known TB in the area - Badgers are VERY territorial and a healthy badger will drive off any interlopers... So there are some farms that don't have TB (and are therefore on about annual/48 month retesting). Most now are on 60 - 120 day retesting, and there are a LOT more now than there were 5 years ago.
 
The Badger poulation is totaly out of control and it is high time that a Badger Cull was allowed to take place to help reduce the incidence of Bovine TB.It could be carried out humanely under licence by people who hold open firearms certificates who are out at night lamping Foxes with Centrefire Rifles NOT Shotguns. No one wants to the Badger population erradicated but it most certainly needs to brought under control. At this moment in time Bovine TB spread by Badgers is not only destroying long established Herds but Peoples Health and Livelyhoods.
The spineles last government which was so in bed with the fluffy bunnie brigade failed the British people on this issue, I just hope this lot we have know have the *******s to get a grip on this situation before it is too late.
 
The law protecting badgers is another fine example of implementation without thought of consequences. The law was brought in to protect badgers from the thugs who cruelly bait and torture. It has failed, as those who are intent on this continue. Meanwhile, as the badger has no predator other than man, it continues to rise in population, and what was a woodland animal has moved out onto pasture land to accomodate the rising numbers. Prior to the Bill, farmers were able to control numbers by shooting. Control by man taken away, the badger has become a pest and a liability to farmers trying to earn a living, and a huge expense to us, the taxpayer, who funds the compensation.
The law needs changing. How can you compare a farmer/landowner shooting badgers to keep numbers down with those who capture and torture them?
 
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