badger cull

[sussexlad]

heard on the news today that a trial badger cull is to go ahead in certain areas of the uk. wondering what people think about this?

im all for it, if a link to bovine tb can be proved then its a good thing. but whether its legal or not alot of diary farmers will shoot them anyway!

[Mark Bolam]

Been done before, didn't work then either.

 

Bovine TB could be eradicated if we are prepared to pay the price for a generation of immunisation.

[C.J]

Been done before, didn't work then either.

 

Bovine Tb was all but eradicated when they used to gas all setts within a 3 mile radius of any cattle infections.

[nick channer]

culls been going on round here for years.... my grandad used to gas evety hole on the farm twice a yr... mind you in those days every other farm had cattle... now theres none for miles..

[WorcsWuss]

I'm for it... hopefully they'll get it set up country-wide before we lose ALL of our cattle!

[Mark Bolam]

Culling will help, but it isn't a cure-all.

 

The fact it's called bovine TB is a big clue, badgers don't suddenly get it from ebay then go round infecting cattle!

 

The numbers (£) being bandied around about the cull are crazy!

[Mark Bolam]

Bovine Tb was all but eradicated when they used to gas all setts within a 3 mile radius of any cattle infections.

 

It wasn't though, was it?

[jamez654]

As a farm vet, I am all for it. As long at is done humanely.

 

It has been proven that TB is transmitted from cattle to badgers and badgers to cattle. It is a shame that vaccination is not particularly effective for badgers and cannot be used in cattle as it is not possible to differentiate with a test between vaccinated and infected cattle.

 

At the end of the day everbody wants healthy badgers and cattle and TB is not good for either species.

 

The debate revolves around the study which showed that despite a significant reduction in TB breakdowns in cattle in trial badger culling areas, there tends to be a slight increase in TB breakdowns in cattle around the perimeter of the areas. This is likely due to TB infected badgers from further away moving in to replace those which have been culled. They are very terratorial.

 

I hope that the cull will take place in areas with good boundaries which badgers cannot cross such as major roads, rivers etc. so that this does not happen.

 

 

James

[WorcsWuss]

Eventually it will settle down I'm sure.

For too long we've been slaughtering cattle really for no good reason other than to appease some rather vociferous animal activists. It appears that public feel that since cattle are bred for meat, killing them in huge numbers isn't the pitiful waste of life us farmers seem to think it is.

Slaughtering infected cattle is easily done and essential.

But reducing the numbers of badgers at the same time to reduce the chances of the disease flaring up again seems essential as well to my logical brain....

 

A good day for cattle I reckon...!

[NFG]

Hi

 

IMO are we sure that its just badgers that spread TB?

 

& why isnt there a vaccine for cattle?

 

To me it seems a short term solution to gas badgers as they eventually re-populate the area.

 

N