Not content with demolishing public services, attacking the poor and undermining economic recovery, the ConDem coalition has now turned its attention to the country’s badger population. It is planning a badger cull on the pretext of tackling bovine tuberculosis (BTB).
BTB is a terrible disease, endemic to cattle in the UK with hotspots in the South West and West Midlands. The risk of transmission is so great that all animals in a herd found to have the disease are slaughtered and movement controls imposed around the farm. This means that finding BTB in a herd can have a serious impact on a farm’s profitability and viability as a business.
The Labour Government was determined to make progress towards eradicating bovine TB, not least because of the serious impact it has on farmers and their families, but not by culling badgers.
Key to the decision to end badger culling was the report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) which said: “badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB”. The method preferred by the previous Labour government was to vaccinate cattle and badgers against BTB.
But the outcome of the general election has seen the ConDem coalition turn the clock back. The Coalition Agreement stated that the Government would bring forward a package of “badger control” measures to bring BTB under control.
Then at the end of June, the Government halted five of the six pilots for an injectable badger vaccine.
Even though the latest figures show a fall of 25% in BTB in cattle in the first three months of the year the ConDem coalition government is consulting on a badger cull.
No new evidence has come forward to contradict the views of the ISG that a badger cull would not meaningfully contribute to the eradication of BTB and, in fact, it could make it worse.
Labour’s shadow DEFRA minister, Hilary Benn, says
"This is the wrong decision. Bovine TB is a terrible disease that we must overcome, but we have to use means that will work.
“Bovine TB has a devastating effect on farmers' herds and their livelihoods, and I understand how desperate those affected are for something more to be done. But badger culling has already been tried. Based on these trials, the Independent Scientific Group concluded that ‘badger culling cannot meaningfully contribute to the future control of cattle TB.’
“As Secretary of State, I agreed with this scientific judgement. It would be neither practical nor publicly acceptable, and getting it wrong could actually make matters worse.
“Shooting badgers may make ministers feel that they are doing something, but it is not the way to beat this disease. Vaccination is, which is why cancelling five of the six vaccine demonstration projects was such a mistake."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment