The case seems pretty clear to me. For example the key paragraph in the Guardian article you quoted, Tobi, is this:
"So, to the question of whether badgers are responsible for increasing infection rates in cattle. If they are, how have cattle remained free of bTB in Scotland, where no badgers have been killed? Why do they have it in the Isle of Man, where there are no badgers? And why are bTB rates twice as high in Ireland, where so many badgers have been killed that they are extinct in many areas?" Yes, yes! That raises exactly the right questions. The trouble is, the culling community is not listening.
There is an interesting article here: http://www.brianmay.com/brian/letters/le...OTLAND.pdf
This article further elaborates on this issue of Scotland being almost TB free, despite a badger population. It is ironic that the only cases of TB in cattle in Scotland were when they had been imported from England!
To be honest, EU bureaucracy is holding back any vaccination solution. To be fully effective, two things are needed:
Speedy development (think €s!) of a vaccine which would protect badgers and cattle;
Speedy development of a DIVA test.
(For an explanation, see http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...terson.pdf - esp. p2)
The trouble is that most European countries are officially TB free, so they are not willing to invest large bucks (more correctly, large €s) into such development. The EU, meanwhile, has officially banned the current BCG vaccination for cattle - see the EU letter quoted above.
The UK has therefore sought other solutions to its problems. The only issue there is that it has come up with the wrong answers! Eradication of poor badgers will not solve the problem. Only a real lock-down of cattle movements and annual testing of cattle (stupidly abandoned by the UK in the 80s) will solve the current crisis. But the UK doesn't want to go down that road, for fear of the economic repercussions for farmers. But that is the only road which will work for the moment.
"So, to the question of whether badgers are responsible for increasing infection rates in cattle. If they are, how have cattle remained free of bTB in Scotland, where no badgers have been killed? Why do they have it in the Isle of Man, where there are no badgers? And why are bTB rates twice as high in Ireland, where so many badgers have been killed that they are extinct in many areas?" Yes, yes! That raises exactly the right questions. The trouble is, the culling community is not listening.
There is an interesting article here: http://www.brianmay.com/brian/letters/le...OTLAND.pdf
This article further elaborates on this issue of Scotland being almost TB free, despite a badger population. It is ironic that the only cases of TB in cattle in Scotland were when they had been imported from England!
To be honest, EU bureaucracy is holding back any vaccination solution. To be fully effective, two things are needed:
Speedy development (think €s!) of a vaccine which would protect badgers and cattle;
Speedy development of a DIVA test.
(For an explanation, see http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...terson.pdf - esp. p2)
The trouble is that most European countries are officially TB free, so they are not willing to invest large bucks (more correctly, large €s) into such development. The EU, meanwhile, has officially banned the current BCG vaccination for cattle - see the EU letter quoted above.
The UK has therefore sought other solutions to its problems. The only issue there is that it has come up with the wrong answers! Eradication of poor badgers will not solve the problem. Only a real lock-down of cattle movements and annual testing of cattle (stupidly abandoned by the UK in the 80s) will solve the current crisis. But the UK doesn't want to go down that road, for fear of the economic repercussions for farmers. But that is the only road which will work for the moment.
