Information
Wrongly Blamed
Farmers, veterinary Surgeons, Biologists and Politicians have grown up being told that badgers are the problem, where Bovine T.B. Is concerned. It Is very difficult for any of this group of people to admit error or think differently.
From 1935 to 1970 by using the Test and Slaughter Programme M.A.F.F. virtually eliminated T.B. from the national herd, without targeting a single badger. T.B. Is at an Irreducible minimum given the flaws at every stage of the tracing!. testing and slaughter procedure.
Cattle Problem
The problem of Bovine T.B. Is so simple. Cattle are the Ideal Maintenance Host for the disease, being. Infectious at any stage.
Longer Intervals between herd testing from March 1993 has simply resulted In more T.B. cows slipping through the net. Hence the Infection has spread through herds from Gloucester to Gwent, to Hereford and Worcestershire, now even to Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire where cattle T.B. has been absent for decades.
Bovine T.B. Is a respiratory lung! Infection. which spreads like human flu by coughing and sneezing!. It Is Impossible for a Badger to give Bovine T .B. to a cow.
Badger culls have failed to prevent the upswing In cattle T.B. but shorter cattle test Intervals and slaughter has worked in stooping T.B. In West Wales recently.
The over 30 month old cattle cull for B.S.E. has also halved cattle T.B. during 1996/7 this will probably be used as proof that Badger culls work. Older dairy cattle are those most likely to develop full. blown T.B. and B.S.E.
Wasting Money
The whole T.B. programme Is costing £18 million pounds of taxpayers money a year.
£11 million pounds In cattle testing £1.7 million on research and the rest on badger culling. - A very costly exercise to prove nothing.
We should .pour all this revenue Into cattle testing and make the intervals between tests shorter.
Some of the Krebs report facts are true: .
Page 103 - 104 . Quote
"12.42 Infected cattle carcasses have been detected annually over the last six years in British slaughter houses.
The number of Infected carcasses are almost certainly under estimate of the true incidents. For example It would not be possible to detect animals with lesions that are Invisible to the naked eye and a proportion of cattle carcasses that have only one or two small lesions are likely to be missed by routine slaughter checks."
THIS IS MORE OR LESS ADMITTING THE SKIN TEST IS FAILING TO PICK UP CARRIERS
Krebs PAGE 104 6.3.11 Quote:
Infected cattle can develop grossly visible lesions within one month of Infection with M bovis, would be expected that some animals will become infected and presented for slaughter in the interval between herd tests"
Unaware Farmers
Meanwhile back on the farm (the farmer being unaware of his T.B. cattle).
The other Cattle left behind have already had the bacillus passed on to them by the Undiscovered "carriers" which have already gone to the abattoir. When the next skin test time arrives, surprisingly there is T.B. positive cattle.
It is amazing, taking into consideration all the superb examples in Krebs Report of how inadequate is the current cattle skin test. The conclusion drawn is another "5 year scientific cull"
BOVINE T.B. IS A BOVINE PROBLEM. WE SHOULD FORGET BADGERS AND CONCENTRATE ON THE COMPUTERIZED ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION SCHEME FOR BETTER HERD TRACING. DEVELOPING A CATTLE VACCINE SHOULD BE GIVEN PRIORITY AND FARMERS SHOULD RECEIVE 100% COMPENSATION. THERE SHOULD BE SHORTER TEST INTERVALS AND THE BLOOD TEST DEVELOPED TO BACK UP SKIN TESTING.