BADGER BLOG 2

BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS – is a disease of cattle

If readers are interested in the history of BTB in the UK, you can do no better than read ‘The Fate of the Badger’ by `Dr. Richard Meyer, first published 30 years ago, and recently updated, as it is a woeful, sorrowful and scandalous story of not following science, and of prejudice and ineptitude.

As Richard wisely says ‘we (humans) are all infected with TB – through our BCG jab – but we are not infectious!’

So for badgers – they might catch BTB bacilli, but there is no proof that they pass it on at all.

I’ll do my best in fewer words than of Richard’s.

Below are some facts and guidance, not a full treatise, as the subject is involved and complicated. What the reader will usually hear is a fixed view created by non-scientific minds, and a reluctance or failure to really delve into the subject.

Suffice to say at present (we’ll return to some of the detail later), the position in England is that as so many millions of pounds have been spent on killing badgers, it is now impossible for the pro-cull agencies to go back on this, and say they were mistaken.

I’ll deal briefly with all four home countries.

The clue is in the name – Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a disease of cattle, NOT badgers, foxes, moles, rats, deer etc. – who, yes all can catch bovine TB from cattle – so why not cull them? Two simple reasons, one that catching the other mammals would be very difficult or impossible, whereas badgers are comparatively easy to find, and second,  a cultural and inbred hatred of badgers. Also, we know well how cattle spread the disease. It is by contact with their sputum, so any grazing on grass will spread spores. Any transmission route back by badgers is NOT verified. Recent, and as yet unpublished research in Ireland seeking to measure contact between cattle and badgers, showed, in a radio-collared test, that badgers avoided both fields with cattle in them, and also barns, food stores and farmyards. No wonder comparing the size of cattle and badgers.

SCOTLAND

Spoiler alert! There is no bovine TB in Scotland in wildlife or in cattle herds. So, first of all, is there a magic bullet whereby Scotland has mysteriously avoided BTB? Well. No. It has been because of a much stricter regime of cattle testing and movement restriction and swift removal from the herd.

On the occasions bovine TB has been identified in cattle (a positive reactor), it has been caused by cattle imported from parts of England and Ireland where bovine TB persists. Scotland has an enhanced cattle testing regime that allows an infected animal to be quickly isolated, the herd isolated, and no movement, often for over six months, until there are no further positive reactors. Both APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency), and the Government’s Vet Service, move very fast to stamp out any possible BTB.

Despite the risk, some cattle dealers bring cattle in from high-risk areas such as Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to Cumbrian markets in high numbers, from where there are significant cattle movements into Scotland. Thousands of cattle are moved and traded every day across the UK.

WALES

Scotland achieved officially BTB-free status in 2009 by applying these measures rigorously over a long period. Wales achieved 95% of herds bovine TB free in just 4 years after introducing 6-monthly cattle testing and the high sensitivity interferon-gamma test, tightening cattle movement controls and it plans to inoculate cattle.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Currently, in late 2021, the province is in a ‘consultation’ over measures to try and deal with BTB, BUT at an early stage, their Environment Minister announced that whatever was decided, the measures would include killing badgers. The only decision required would be ‘where, and ‘how many’.

ENGLAND

In 2020 the focus in England and Wales switched from culling badgers to tightening up on cattle measures. Field trials of cattle vaccination are being undertaken (using the same vaccine given to humans) combined with a test which allows an infected animal to be distinguished from a vaccinated animal – a requirement for export to market. The DIVA test is rapid, accurate and cheap so offering a long term solution.

However, after announcing ‘an end’ to culling in early 2021, the Environment Minister, George Eustace, then followed this by allowing licences for culling to carry on until 2025! The Badger Trust calculates on the details so far given out that at least a further 140,000 badgers will be killed.

It is important to realise that;

• Culling is now taking place in areas of England where there is NO bovine TB, so why?
• No badgers are now tested to see if they are carrying bTB, so any effectiveness is impossible to ascertain
• Killing is meant to be by shooting badgers trapped in cage traps, but now there is ‘free shooting’, leading to horrible injuries. The cull is cruel beyond belief.

FACTS TO REMEMBER

• BTB is spread by the importation and movement of infected cattle across the country, which can ‘jump species’ from cattle on to other mammalian wildlife.
• Badger culling is not an effective way of reducing BTB transmission
• Cull-induced changes in badger movements and social group disruption have adverse effects on bovine TB transmission (known as perturbation) and illegal badger persecution has been demonstrated to make matters worse.
• Cattle biosecurity is an effective way of reducing BTB transmission, which means isolating cattle from ANY other animals
• Effective cattle-based measures include a stringent testing system, pre- and post-movement cattle testing, and using the sensitive interferon-gamma test which detects 90% of infected cattle (more powerful than the skin test which misses 20-30%) allowing infected cattle to be quickly identified and isolated from the herd before they can spread bovine TB to other cattle and the environment.
• Note – at any one point in time, 10% of ALL cattle, sheep and pigs in the UK are travelling by road! Badgers don’t tend to pack their little suitcases and go away on holiday.

So, the 64,000 dollar question – why is culling still carrying on?

The only possible explanation is one of sheer prejudice. In a later blog, I’ll return to the interesting issue of ‘fixed beliefs’.

Further blogs

• Effects of farming, forestry and building development
• Snaring, game-keeping, shooting
• Badger baiting