Badgers

[oldjerry]

OK,cards on the table, I hate badgers with a passion.

It's not because their cutesy appearance masks their potentially vicious nature(bit like Pandas) nor because they are stubborn to the point of stupidity, but more the fact that one literally ripped the roof off a henhouse,and slaughtered my prizewinning pair of Indian Game Birds, a strain we'd been breeding for years,and just to eat the eggs the female was sitting on.

So that's a good reason to build stronger henhouses,not eliminate badgers.

For me,2 things stand out,firstly,the TB test for cattle is incredibly unreliable( though a moneyspinner for vets,who will send their least experienced 'newbie' which often makes things worse)FACT I was told by the manager of one official TB abbattoir that about 50% of the animals brought in as reactors(at huge expense in compensation) when examined didn't have the disease......one of my P\T jobs 3 years ago was drinving a stock wagon...

Secondly,there is a fairly reliable vaccine available (BCG)which will give some protection,but despite the disinformation from DEFRA,very little has been spent on developing this,simply because the 'Food Industry' doesn't like the idea that milk could be percieved as a pure natural product(hilarious,when you consider the way cows are treated in even the best dairy set ups.)

Finally(I know it was only2!) the overwhelming majority of dairy farmers are working incredibly long hours(for not much,if any return) and when you're desperate reason tends to go out the window,most,if they're honest will say,in private at least that killing badgers won't help at all.DEFRA,their duplicitous 'scientists', and that git who wanted to kill the raptors(can't remember his name and I 'm not interested anyhow) all think they need to be seen to be doing something...........

......so going on the pretext that my enemys enemy is my friend, maybe badgers aint so bad..........

[The Riff-Raff Element]

It is not widely appreciated that there is another potential reservoir of bovine TB commonly found in close association with cows, particularly those that spend their lives under cover, and that is the farmyard cat. Cats on farms (both those that are domestic and feral incomers) are known to be "spill over" hosts for bovine TB and, unlike dogs or badgers, are often in frequent close contact with cattle as they go about their daily business around the farm.

Studies have been few, but some work done in 2009/2010 suggested bovine TB was infecting one in four cats on dairy farms.

I guess cats must have better lobbyists.

[demi]

Iv not seen whats been going on with this recently, but in Scotland we have badgers and cows and no TB ( correct me if im wrong ) . Why dont they just vaccinate the cows?

EDIT:

Just realized Oldjerry already mentioned that.

But to me vaccination and other preventitive measures like Keeping the cows in better conditions to keep infectious diseases to a minimum is the solution.