Badger Culls Mulled as TB Outbreak Hits UK Cattle
Date: 09-Dec-05
Country: UK
Author: Nigel Hunt
Britain's farm ministry is due to unveil its strategy for tackling the disease later this month with farmers demanding it include badger culls, a view strongly rejected by wildlife conservation groups such as the Badger Trust.
The National Farmers Union has backed badger culls as part of its proposed strategy, saying "evidence shows that there is a substantial risk of badger-cattle disease transmission."
"We feel it is imperative that some sort of sustainable badger control is implemented at the earliest opportunity," the NFU said in a policy document.
Jack Reedy of the Badger Trust disagreed. "It is a dangerous process to reach for the shotgun before all the thinking has been done," he said, calling for more research to be undertaken on how the disease has spread across the Britain.
A total of 20,423 cattle were slaughtered during the first eight months of this year following positive herd tests, up nearly 37 percent from 14,940 in the January to August period last year, according to data issued by Britain's farm ministry.
The outbreak spread rapidly as cattle farms restocked after the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001. There were 8,353 cattle slaughtered following positive tests in 2000.
CATTLE TESTING
A report issued by the farm ministry's Science Advisory Council concluded that "some carefully planned and executed culling may contribute to an effective control strategy in some heavily infected and geographically distinct and isolated areas, but only when coupled with other control measures."
The council's report, which also noted that in many cases the scientific evidence was "incomplete or equivocal," said it was clear that cattle movements substantially increased the spread of the disease.
It backed measures including pre-movement testing of cattle, a strategy supported by the Badger Trust but given only conditional backing by the NFU.
The NFU has said farmers would be willing to accept compulsory pre-movement testing of cattle "only if action to deal with the disease in badgers is taken simultaneously."
"The government would be imposing significant extra cost and inconvenience on farmers in the core TB areas, for no worthwhile benefit. It would be like baling out a leaking boat without doing anything to plug the hole," the NFU said.
Bovine TB can be caught by humans although such infections are rare with about 40 cases each year in Britain, according to the UK government. It is killed by the normal pasteurisation of milk. Herds which sell milk unpasteurised are subject to more regular TB tests than other herds.
