The culling of
badgers has been extended to cover more areas across the country,
from Cornwall to Cumbria, the aim being to cull between 24,550 and
42,029 animals. Figures issued by DEFRA indicate that since 2013 bTB
incidence in cattle has fallen from 10.4% to 5.6% in Gloucestershire,
and from 24.4% to 12.0% in Somerset. In Dorset however the
disease has risen from 15.9% to 20.6%.
Doubts have been
expressed recently by vets and scientists connected with past
studies of the problem as to the validity of the methods DEFRA used
to obtain these figures. Estimates of the total number of badgers in
any culling area have been obtained by desk studies not by field
counts, and the cull targets derived from these. Where there are
deviations (up or down) from the expected target figure once the cull
has taken place, it has been explained away by assuming that the
original total figure for the cull area was inaccurate and adjusting
it suitably, a process usually known as ‘moving the goalposts’.
There are also
questions as to whether incidence or prevalence of bTB in cattle
should be used as a measure of infected numbers. As noted here
previously a new Phage Test has been used in Devon instead of the
usual skin test and has been shown to pick up bTB considerably
earlier than the skin test. There is thus likely to be a reservoir of
the disease in cattle prior to the skin test which is spread to other
cattle and, via slurry spreading, to badgers and other animals such
as deer.
Our farmer
neighbours are suffering intolerable losses as infected cattle are
culled. When are they going to insist on effective detection of the
disease together with improved biosecurity,
manure management (particularly slurry spreading), Badger vaccination
and, yes, targeted Badger culling.
