Farmers have been betrayed yet again, by incompetent DEFRA and Natural England "scientific experts". Tragically they sanctioned licenced culls of up to 150,000 badgers from across huge swathes of the country, in 54 areas, 7th Sept. So there may well have been 25,00 culled in the last 3 weeks, at a cost of c. £5000 / badger, if you include extra policing with unbelievably drone surveillance of protestors !
Alas, 130,000 culled 2013-2019, cost £60 million, 30,000 from across 84 % of Devon must come near to wiping out the badger population. In my own Stroud, Glos area, 50 out of 70 badger clans wiped out, and only 8 with cubs this year.
All this "Scientifically based policy" comes from the 2018 Godfray Report, which claimed , based on the results of the RBCT Randomised Badger Culling Trial, that there is a self-sustaining "Woodchester Park like" reservoir of badger TB, generating half the unconfirmed herd breakdowns. So the badger cull halved cattle TB. This is the greatest pseudoscientific hoax since Piltdown man strode the Weald of Sussex. Spectacularly wrong :- the few and only TB badgers occur even at Woodchester, as a dead-end spillover from cattle, just 1515 TB badgers out of 11,000 culled from 1900 sq.km. in the RBCT.
Everyone seems to have forgotten, but bovine TB is a respiratory infectious disease of bovines (CATTLE) , and it is self-sustaining within the cattle population.
At least 3 new cases / breakdown, disperse to cause the scatter of new herd breakdowns, via local cattle movements. Currently 60 % are of Unconfirmed TB, cases with no visible lesions, and 40 % confirmeds. MAFF vets back in the 1980 Zuckerman unbelievably stupidly wrongly assumed these unconfirmeds didn't have TB, so it must be badgers ! So normal cattle testing (culls) are what halved cattle TB
So I've recently asked BOJO, why he hasn't called off this meaningless cull .. no response so far !
sincerely, Martin Hancox, ex-govmt TB Panel, STROUD
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel