Culling

[brionon]

Do you think there should be a cull of Farmers to protect Badgers ?

[Illyria54]

You must be a Vegetarian or Vegan to make a comment like that, Badgers cause untold damage to farms regardless of whether they carry TB or not, there are 2 Badger setts on our farm and because we can't do anything about the Bl**dy things we have lost about 1/2 acre of 1 field! The British farmer are having a hard enough time as it is without Badgers putting them out of business as well.

[Abdulmajid]

Brionon.

I speak from experience, not from the heart.............

I know a lot of cattle farmers as does my father and can safely say they are all bloody millionaires!!!!

Even through the foot and mouth era and BSE, all came up smelling of roses.

I have lost count of how many of them say they are broke etc. then harp on how they have just bought a new tractor for �75K or Range Rover for �50K or the best one when I knew a farmer who turned down 2.4 million for his land!!!!

So..............................re the badger thing.....

The evidence is weak in their spreading TB.

If farmers spent more money on better badger proof fencing (yes I know TB can be airborne!!!) and less money on protesting against the system they will be fine.

Badgers are magnificent animals. They are protected for a reason, due to their rarity and beauty.

No farmer has the right to cull these and thankfully with the news today it won't be happening.

I own a few acres myself and if they want to humanely catch them (with permission from the forrestry commission, or whoever) I shall happily accommodate them there.

Beautiful creatures!!!!!

[brionon]

I bet any money you like that with a bit of study and some Brain-power I could figure a way to keep Badgers away from my Cattle without Gassing them.

[gelda]

I've had bovine tb twice,the first time I got it I was worried that I could pass it on to family etc. but was told by the specialist that I needn't take any precautions because this type of tb isn't infectious or contagious or airborn , the only way to get it is by ingesting something like milk or meat from an infected animal so how do the cows and badgers get it? He also said it can lay dormant in the body for years and some people don't even know they've had it. I'm sure if it had been infectious I would have been isolated.

[lankeela]

Instead of spending all this money on reports and culling why don't they use the money on a vaccination programme for badgers. They could surely do the same as they do with rabies vaccines in foxes in other places.

[gelda]

Or vaccinate all the cows so that they don't pass it on to the badgers!!

[Noweia]

We can't vaccinate yet because currently there's no way of differentiating infected and vaccinated animals. There is a huge amount of research being done on this at the moment, with a huge amount of money being spent by Animal Health trying to get a solution.

Currently half of all money spent in the Inst of Animal Health goes towards TB. More than Bluetongue, FMD, Brucellosis, and many numerous other diseases. It's a huge problem that most people outside agriculture/veterinary services apparently consistently fail to see.

Mycobacterium bovis exists in badgers, cattle and several other species. To effectively control the disease, we need to control it in all species in which it is present.

An extensive badger cull would only be part of an already extensive, and expensive, control programme.

[brionon]

Abdulmaj

Well said,mate.

[janetmarie]

If all farmers were culled where do you think all of the food would come from? There is no other country who would be able to produce enough food to feed the people of this one, and even if they could it would be too expensive for us to import. But saying this i do not feel that the answer to this problem is to cull badgers. I know some farmers who have had cows culled because they have tested positive for T.B. and when they have been tested again after being culled there was no trace of the disease.

[brionon]

janetmarie dear, Nobody REALLY meant to Cull the Farmers. OK love ?