Diseases Rabies: Department of Health
Clarifying Facts About Bovine TB
SIR - I hope you will grant me an opportunity again to attempt to clarify some facts about badgers and bovine TB. There are roughly 400,000 badgers in the UK.
Badgers live in underground sets with three to 10 badgers in each. They like to make their setts on gentle slopes near wooded farmland. Females give birth to up to three babies each year between February and April. Badgers are very territorial. They like to eat things like maize and earthworms. Badgers defecate and urinate in latrines, a separate area shared by several family groups nearby the sets. With regards to TB, any mammal (including humans) with untreated tuberculosis will slowly suffer under the illness and die. If you need proof, then go to Africa where you can see some fellow humans dying with the disease. There are a high percentage of TB-infected badgers in the southwest (ISGs 4th Report on Cattle TB, 2005). To say badgers do not suffer is blind ignorance.
Before badgers became a protected species in 1973, their numbers were fairly low, as landowners had been culling them with CO gas. Badger TB was nearly eradicated before this using the same test and slaughter regime used today. The main difference today is the much larger badger population infected with bTB. This means badgers are a reservoir host for the disease. It is no longer a blaming game. It's unfortunate but badgers have bTB, spread bTB and suffer with bTB, and their behavior and lifestyle bring them into close contact with our livestock. Any disease maintained in a reservoir wildlife population will become almost impossible to eradicate. The point of a badger cull is not to wipe badgers from the face of the earth. The point is to decrease the disease incidence in badgers (the reservoir) so there will be less interactions between diseased and healthy animals, and thus gain control of the disease.
JESSICA R THORNTON,
BSc, BVetMed, MRCVS
Worcester.
Culling The Wrong Way To Reduce Bovine TB
RESPONDING to Mr Keith Brooks' questions about the badger cull (September 10), I would like to encourage readers to be aware of the scientific research on reducing the levels of bovine TB, and the need for a science-based approach to dealing with this disease.
Bovine TB is a horrible disease, and the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust thinks the Government is right to try and get rid of it from the countryside. But culling badgers is, we believe, the wrong way to do it.
Scientists involved in the extensive cull trials, from 1998 to 2006, concluded that "badger culling is unlikely to contribute positively, or cost effectively, to the control of cattle TB in Britain".
The Government has ignored that message, and the science-based advice to avoid encouraging badgers to disperse, as detailed in the earlier Krebs Report.
To answer Mr Brooks' questions: bovine TB is a disease of cattle which, in 1971, was found to have infected badgers in Gloucestershire. Bovine TB is found in other wildlife, notably deer.
It is thought that Bovine TB is most commonly transmitted between badgers in the family group, which is why it's important to vaccinate as many badgers as possible to reduce the numbers of infected animals.
Many landowners and conservation groups, including The Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust, have been vaccinating badgers on their land for several years. BBOWT is working with a local badger group to vaccinate badgers on one of our larger reserves.
MATT JACKSON, Head of Conservation Strategy, Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust, Armstrong Road, Littlemore
Owner Of Geronimo The Alpaca Reveals She Has Been Having Bereavement Counselling For Two Years After It Was Put Down After Testing Positive For Bovine Tuberculosis
The owner of Geronimo the alpaca has revealed she has been having bereavement counselling for two years after the animal was put down.
Helen Macdonald, 52, lost a four-year fight to keep her beloved pet alive when he was put down by Government vets in August 2021 over disputed claims that he had bovine tuberculosis.
She has been unable to work since 2017 after Defra issued a movement restriction on her farm and has been getting counselling ever since his death.
Helen told the Mirror: 'I miss him every day. He's never far from my mind. I have nightmares about what it was like for him, being tortured. I get counselling as I still relive what happened.'
The eight-year-old champion alpaca, who was born in New Zealand before being brought to Britain, was consigned for slaughter after he twice tested positive for bTB in 2017.
Geronimo's owner Helen Macdonald (pictured), 52, has revealed she has been having bereavement counselling for two years after the animal was put down
Helen lost a four-year fight to keep her beloved pet (pictured) alive when he was put down by Government vets in August 2021 over disputed claims that he had bovine tuberculosis
Miss Macdonald has always disputed the results of the bTB test – but the legal battle concluded with a High Court ruling in July 2021 that he should be destroyed.
In August that year, Defra officials and dozens of police officers forced their way on to Miss Macdonald's farm to take Geronimo away.
She said Avon and Somerset Police had questions to answer for 'facilitating murder' and accused Defra of 'bully boy tactics' that are 'frankly unforgivable'.
Miss Macdonald has a herd of alpacas that she uses to make luxury products including scarves and pashminas at her farm.
She started breeding the animals 19 years ago. Geronimo, a pedigree alpaca worth £15,000, had won competitions in New Zealand for his jet black wool.
Leading vets had demanded the Environment Secretary 'commute Geronimo's death sentence' so he could be studied instead of slaughtered.
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