Boris : 18/02/2021 " I will follow the data."

 

Excellent statement. Sadly though it refers to SARS-COV-2 and not a bacteria of the same pathogenic class - mycobacterium bovis - or as we prefer to call it zoonotic Tuberculosis.

The graphs are courtesy of bovineTB information and show the data for Gloucestershire (which piloted a cull of badgers) and Derbyshire (which did not, having had interference from the PM's girlfriend)

Presently DEFRA has a Consultation  out to show us the direction of travel. Led by Boris's current bed mate, a couple of Goldsmiths, a Defra minister and a few more people with much to say and nothing to lose,  Defra appear to want to stop 'following the data', and replace what works with something which most definitely does not. Here's a sample:

A summary of their suggestions
Proposal 1 - extending post movement testing to the edge area
proposal 2 - use of the gamma test in the HRA and edge area
proposal 3 - stop issuing new intensive badger cull licences post 2022
proposal 4 - badger cull licences issued in 2021 and 2022 could be revoked after two years
proposal 5 - reduce the financial commitment required from coal companies
proposal 6 - restrict supplementary badger cull licences to a maximum of two years

Data gathered over the last 50 years shows that to eradicate zoonotic TB from cattle, testing and culling reactor bovines must go hand in hand with culling infectious wildlife reservoirs of disease. That's pretty obvious really, and as CV-19 ravages our economy, lives and industry, lockdowns of people are pretty ineffective if the organism causing the disease, is allowed to spread unchecked. As we have seen.

Government direction of travel  however, seems to be to stop what is seen to work, and replace with something which patently does not. In the link previously given, page 6 states that even the sporadic farmer led (and paid for)  culls have reduced cattle TB by a very significant amount. And the figure of an over 50 per cent reduction has been sustained as more areas came on stream.

As of 2019, 57% of the HRA is now subject to a licensed cull of badgers. This policy, while difficult and inevitably contentious, is starting to yield results. The latest epidemiological analysis conducted by Downs and others has shown that the incidence of the disease in the first cull areas of Somerset and Gloucester has fallen substantially, by 37% and 66% respectively.

We have written many times about the futility of vaccinating  wild badgers . done in such a way that no credence is given to their health status at the time of a jab, and no micro chip to mark them. The results were of course predictable. But the gravy train continues to roll, with the latest consultation full of hope and more research, and very little else to support our livestock industry.  

We feel that the story we told last week about the young Irish cat  dead from the Danish strain 1331 of m.bovis, uniquely found in badger vaccines, may call into question both the licensing criteria for this product and its ad hoc use in the field.

If you remember, badger BCG has a LMA classification - Limited Marketing Authority. No efficacy data was submitted. That we were told, was the responsibility of the end user. And in this case the end user is the Queen of obfuscation regarding vaccines in general and badger vaccine in particular, Rosie Woodroffe.  The VMD also confirm that the product was licensed on the basis that 'did no harm'.

A dead Irish cat and an unknown number of badgers infected with Danish strain 1331 may take issue with that. 

So while our Prime Minister Boris Johnson, MP  is intent on following the data on one Grade 3 pathogen, we would ask him to ensure that his Secretary of State for Environment, Food and  Rural Affairs does exactly the same for another.

More on the cat

 

We quoted the Abstract  from a paper published last week, on the infection of a domestic cat with the Danish strain of m.bovis, found in badger BCG.

Now having read the paper, we are in a better position to comment - and it isn't pretty.

Cats seem to be particularly susceptible to m.bovis infection, and depending on veterinary treatment, prognosis is not good.

"Treatment includes surgery, when indicated, and a long course of multiple appropriate antibiotics (Gunn-Moore 2014b). Long-term remission may be achieved for cats presenting with skin and/or pulmonary lesions. However, prognosis is guarded to poor, for untreated or inappropriately treated patients, due to relapses, pulmonary and/or systemic spread."

The cat in the M.Manou et al paper (published by the Journal of Small Animal Practice by the Wiley Library) was described as a domestic neutered tom cat, aged 7 when he was euthanised. He had been treated for 42 (that is correct - ed) months for a painful forelimb, lack of extension and non weight bearing in that limb and swelling. Treatments included numerous antibiotics and continuous pain relief.  For over three years. 

When finally referred  for further investigative treatment, the cat's condition was described as follows:

"On referral to our institution, the cat was on a 4-week course of meloxicam. Antibiotics had been discontinued 2 weeks earlier. There was severe lameness with toe touching weight-bearing (standing and walking) and minimal use of the left forelimb [grade 4/5 Visual Analogue Score (VAS)]. There was severe atrophy of the muscles of the brachium and shoulder. There was soft tissue swelling around the elbow, and normal range of motion (ROM). Pain was elicited on extension of the elbow and on direct palpation of the point of insertion of the tendon of the triceps muscle on the olecranon. 

Mild discomfort was elicited on flexion and extension of the left carpus. Orthogonal radiographs of the elbows showed a heterogenous appearance of the proximal aspect of the ulna with new bone formation, interpreted as a previous greenstick fracture or osteoarthitic changes of the left elbow (Fig 1). Mild osteoarthritic changes were seen in the right elbow. Thoracic radiographs revealed a diffuse unstructured broncho-interstitial pattern (Fig 2). 

Exploratory surgery was performed."

Having drained the soft swelling in the  elbow joint and ascertained that this cat had extensive bone problems, he was discharged while tests were carried out on the exudate from the joint.

PCR and the usual culture tests revealed m.bovis  But the the spoligotype was revealed as Danish Strain 1331 used locally in badger vaccines.  After another six months with no improvement, intermittent lameness  and pain -  and  now a  definite diagnosis of z Tuberculosis, this young cat was euthanised.

PM results were as follows:

"Post mortem examination revealed marked muscle atrophy of the proximal left forelimb and scapula, mild left axillary and prescapular lymphadenomegaly, and focal pallor within muscles close to the proximal ulna including the anconeus muscle. 

Histological examination showed focally extensive severe necrotizing granulomatous myositis, ulnar periostitis, and granulomatous lymphadenitis of the prescapular and axillary LN; ZN staining was negative. M. bovis BCG Danish Strain 1331 was isolated from the pre-scapular LN, muscle and bone (olecranon)."

Other snippets from this paper should be of interest to all who think that culling infectious badgers can be replaced by vaccinating them.

"Numerous acid-fast bacilli have been found within macrophages at the site of BCG vaccination (subcutaneous route) 371 days after administration in badgers, suggesting the possibility of persistence of BCG within a low percentage of this vaccinated population (Lesellier et al. 2006)."

 

The paper goes on to describe tuberculosis persisting in humans when offered to candidates already compromised with disease.  And this is exactly the situation in the UK and Ireland, where the 'trials' - such as they were, pre screened all their badgers before vaccination. And why no evidence of a drop in cattle TB was found in areas where such ad hoc vaccinations had taken place. There was no such expected drop in areas where pre screened badgers had been vaccinated either.

Badgers offered BCG in the wild, are merely cage trapped, then jabbed with  an attenuated (weakened) but live vaccine  - then released. Unmarked except for a quick spray of sheep marker. No microchips to make sure they didn't come in for a second or third dose of peanuts, and certainly no pre jab health check.

The paper's conclusion is thus:

" We hypothesise that vaccinating immunocompromised badgers may result in persistence and shedding of the BCG Danish Strain 1331.

[Badger ] vaccinations took place every spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October) from 2010 until spring 2017. The most likely route of transmission to the cat was either via the initial bite or was secondary to wound infection from environmental contamination of the cat’s intra articular injection site with urine or faeces, from a vaccinated badger shedding BCG."

 The time line for this unfortunate cat, we trace back to exposure to his  m.bovis infection at around 3 years old - 2015/16 - as he was 7 years old when he was pts and had suffered veterinary interventions for half his short and painful life, with no success whatsoever.

But currently we have a Secretary of State hell bent of curtailing the one thing which has halved TB in cattle in badger cull areas over the last few years, and replacing it with - nothing. 

Vaccination for badgers - see above and in this posting.  We call it 'honouring the lie'.  

For vaccination in cattle - see this posting.  

But this is what happens when infectious reservoirs of badgers are removed. Successfully. 

With thanks to http://www.bovinetb.info/index.php for the chart which confirms our Parliamentary questions, posed all those years ago. We asked why the Thornbury TB eradication had been so spectacularly successful .

The answer was unequivocal:

 "The fundamental difference between the Thornbury area and other areas [] where bovine tuberculosis was a problem, was the systematic removal of badgers from the Thornbury area. No other species was similarly removed. No other contemporaneous change was identified that could have accounted for the reduction in TB incidence within the area" [157949 - Hansard]"

Keep it simple. 

 

zTB in cat genotyped to vaccinated badgers.

 

We knew from previous papers  that vaccinating badgers with BCG at 10x the human required strength, was a daft idea, having covered it many times in the past. But today's news from the respected  Wiley Library  sheds a whole new light on the indiscriminate jabbing of wild badgers, of uncertain health status, by well meaning but stupid people.

The Abstract from the paper is below, in full.

"A 7‐year‐old male neutered domestic shorthair outdoor cat was referred for chronic left forelimb lameness, which had been treated with intra‐articular injections of triamcinolone acetonide. A soft tissue swelling around the elbow joint, extending from the distal humerus to the proximal ulna, was surgically explored and biopsy samples obtained. Mycobacterium bovis was cultured from samples from the soft tissue and bone. 

The mycobacteria from the media were killed and the DNA extracted and tested on a multiplex real‐time PCR for the absence of specific genes and the presence of mycobacterial genus markers. The PCR revealed bacillus Calmette‐Guérin Danish Strain 1331; this was also isolated from the prescapular lymph node, muscle and bone, obtained at post mortem examination. 

Badgers had been vaccinated with the bacillus Calmette‐Guérin vaccine SSI (Statens Serum Institute) in the area where the cat lived, in the spring and autumn of the previous year. 

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of infection with M. bovis bacillus Calmette‐Guérin Danish Strain 1331 in a domestic cat, potentially associated with annual vaccination of badgers in the proximity of the cat's home."

Many of the current fluffy ideas for agriculture, originate in the heart of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, a group inhabited by the Prime minister's latest bed mate,  Carrie Symons, his father Stanley Johnson, the Goldsmith brothers, Zac and Ben, one of which was shoehorned into Defra, to join Minister Theresa Villiers. 

Please look at wish number 22. 

And then recall the latest consultation from Defra which proposes vaccinating cattle to avoid culling any infectious badgers at all. But the poor cat whose  nine lives were halved by an environmental contact with the infectious excretions from a vaccinated badger throws a whole new light on the subject.  And also seeds into our environment not only the known spoligotypes of m.bovis  hosted by badgers but the Danish strain 1331 found in badger BCG.

As we said in the previous posting, there is no vaccine for stupidity. 

Covid 19 - It is strenuously denied by DEFRA...

 .. that the pandemic sweeping the country known as Covid  19 is spread by badgers. But who knows ?

Badgers are certainly a super spreader of another Grade 3 pathogen known as zoonotic Tuberculosis and our 538 Parliamentary Questions, which form the basis of this site - now in its 17th year - confirm that. From the early 1970s Ministry vets have known that, and  also that the thorough removal of diseased badgers is essential if cattle are to remain TB free.

So why would George Eustice, the current Secretary of State, on the day that yet another tranche of consultations were launched on badger control, give an interview to the Daily Telegraph  indicating that:

" ...  indefinite culling is "not acceptable", adding "Badger culling is one of the most contentious and divisive policies within our bTB eradication strategy. Our current policy enables four-year intensive cull licences in defined areas with scope for a further five years of supplementary culling."

The plan apparently is to not issue new licenses after next year (2022)  and reduce the length of supplementary culls to just two years.

His optimism is based on the availability of cattle vaccines within 5 years. Good luck with that one, George. We think the world currently has more on its mind than vaccines for cattle TB in the one country which won't control its wildlife reservoir of  the disease. Priorities George, priorities. 

The consultation documents for future strategy, (already decided) can be found on this link 

The relationship of zoonotic disease control with the PM's current bed mate, one Carrie Symonds, has all the hallmarks of being  complicit with Eustice's announcement. It also featured in the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation's wish list, at No 22. 

But it beggars belief that a minister would announce the result of a consultation, not yet collated.

But it neatly confirms what most of us already knew. That Gov.UK makes up its collective mind, then consults to get  the 'democracy' box ticked.

A shameful sham, but one that also ticks boxes on Climate change ( fly around the world - kill cattle?) but also, as if the chaotic Trans .End to Brexit wasn’t wasn’t enough, gives our exports a toxic label, when Export Health Certificates are completed. Or not. 

There is no vaccine for stupidity.

Thankyou DEFRA. 

Dr. Brian's New Year treats

 

Superannuated stargazer and guitar player,  Dr.Brian May is reported to have created a new  perfume  , bottles of which he will sign, to raise money for .... wildlife. It is said to smell of sandalwood, and badgers. Really?  How quaint.

Dr. May was also recorded on Radio this week selling his success at preventing TB on Gatcombe Farm in Devon,  by amongst other things, vaccinating the badgers locally. Sadly the interactive TB map   tells a very different story, with the latest breakdown (of many) lasting in excess of 6 months. 

And of course Dr. May in an interview offered to Farmers Weekly earlier this year  described such vaccinations as 'futile'.

 

With this we would agree, but not for the reasons given by an aging rock star, hand in hand with the most political of vets. Badger vaccination is indeed 'futile' because as we explained in this posting after four big trials in two countries, it did nothing at all to reduce TB in cattle. Check out the links in that post. 

But Dr. Brian, turning this on its metaphorical head has put the blame on cattle - in particular, slurry and the skin test. How odd then that the same skin test has cleared so many countries of zoonotic tuberculosis. Completely. 

The only thing done differently is their control strategy for infected wildlife, known to interact with the regularly  tested sentinel cattle and slaughter of  any reactors. 

And below is the result: depending on the thoroughness of  the control the better the result for cattle. 

 Sadly, with our Prime minister's  current  bed mate and many of  her friends active on the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, (CAWF) their wish list of  vaccinating badgers (No 22 out of 32 Beatrix Potter type wishes) may be encouraged. However futile that may be. 

Defra's Christmas priorities

Another year has stuttered by. The badger culls have had a deal of success, but bubbles of infection still haunt our cattle herds as stragglers, escaping from a patchy 70 per cull, on 70 per cent of available land, wander about. Sometimes finding an unoccupied and still highly infectious sett.

Our PQs answers suggested that m.bovis can survive for up to 2 years in the dark, humid conditions of a badger sett.  They were not wrong.

 Meanwhile, our Chief Veterinary Officer is launching Christmas consultation on the micro chipping of - cats.

 One would have thought that the eradication of a Grade 3 zoonosis would have been a priority? But no. Cats it is, so they don't get lost. 

Cat's lives matter - all nine of them - even if those of our cattle do not. 

 So as another 'plague' spreads across our country, and our 'world beating' scientists fall over each other's shoe laces not controlling it, we wish you a safe and happy Christmas and healthy new year.

Wales - the stamp of Approval.

This week's news of an OBE for the architect of cattle carnage in Wales, Christianne Glossop, comes as no surprise. But in 2011, the lady was the farmers' hero, when she announced the following, in a video message:

'We have a big TB problem here in Wales. And it's quite clear that if we're going to succeed in eradicating this epidemic we absolutely have to tackle all sources of infection. We have infected cattle and we are testing and slaughtering those infected cattle on a regular basis. But alongside that we must deal with infection in other species. One of the biggest problems is our wildlife reservoir of infection particularly in the badger population. Killing the Badgers will make a big difference to the level of infection in the countryside and we know from scientific studies carried out in England that it can also have a direct impact on the incidence of infection in cattle.

OK so far? And in 2011 Ms Glossop continues with her vision:

A long term study that took place in England a number of years ago now showed us that culling badgers can directly reduce the incidence of infection in our cattle herds. And that's what we are preparing to do here in Wales. The long term study that took place in England - The Randomised badger culling trial, set out to ask the question - Can culling badgers have an impact on incidence of infection in our cattle population? And what that study showed was that, in fact, it can reduce the incidence of infection in cattle and that that benefit can last over a significant period of time.

She expands on that statement too:

The areas that were culled have been studied in the 3 - 4 years following the end of badger culling and the benefits continue to be shown and so the great news, great new evidence that was published just two weeks ago now, showed us that the benefits of badger culling can be seen up to 3 - 4 years following the end of culling.

And finishes with the following:

It's really important to remember though that if we are going to be successful in our TB eradication programme here in Wales we must tackle infection in all species. And so alongside our plan to cull badgers we are also bearing down hard on infection in the cattle population. We're carrying out more testing we're removing cattle from the herds and slaughtering them as rapidly as possible and we're also working with farmers across Wales to raise standards of bio-security to reduce the risk of introducing infection into our farms”.

We think that Ms Glossop makes it clear in her video, which can be seen on this site with the transcript above, that culling badgers is an essential part of curtailing the rise in bovine TB. It is. And in 2010 she was given a roadmap of how to do that. Sadly, that was a worse shamble than the English RBCT. She had been royally shafted. But this lady was for turning. And while slaughtering just shy of 90,000 cattle in the Principality during her tenure (2010 - 2019 ) barely a single tuberculous badger was culled. A few were vaccinated at vast expense. Farmers Weekly report the huge increase in cattle slaughterings recorded for 2019. The highest on record. So in Ms. Glossop's case, OBE has to be an acronym not for Order of the British Empire, but for Obscene Bovine Extermination.

50 years. A tale of Ministerial failure - in pictures.

 

 We first published this posting in 2012, but as 2021 looms, it will be 50 years since a tuberculous badger was found and post mortemed in a Glos. on a farm where repeated tests and slaughter were failing to clear the cattle herd of zoonotic Tuberculosis.

 Using their own maps, we will track the disgraceful decline of this country's so-called TB eradication programme.



After the Attested herds scheme of the 1950s and 60s, we were so nearly TB free. But a couple of 'hotspots' remained, which finally responded to parallel action on badgers after the mid 1970s.

Farmers controlled badger numbers.

The Protection of Badgers Act (1972) meant that any population control, for any reason, was by license only. MAFF controlled badgers " to prevent the spread of disease".

 And in 1986,  where at least one confirmed TB reactor had triggered annual tests for the parish,  the maps looked like this.

513 reactor cattle were slaughtered in 1986.

After 1986, the real decline began, as gassing of a complete group of badgers implicated in cattle breakdowns by MAFF, was replaced with cage traps and shooting - of those that hadn't been released or moved.

But the big change was the land allocated to the Ministry wildlife teams. This was reduced during the Interim Strategy  operating 1988 - 97 from 7km down to just 1km and then only on land cattle had grazed.
All arable, woodland or neighbouring land was out of bounds to the wildlife teams - if not badgers..

Over the same period badger numbers were estimated to have increased by 77 per cent per decade.

 The 1996 map tells its own story of expanding hotspots.

3,881 cattle were slaughtered in 1996.

In 1997, the then Labour government accepted a £1m bung from the Political Animal Lobby (PAL), and a moratorium was introduced overnight on Section 10 (2) of the Protection of Badgers Act.

No licenses were issued to "prevent the spread of disease".
Two years later, the number of cattle slaughtered had doubled.

The moratorium is still in place.

 The 2006 map shows hotspots expanding like Topsy.

 MAFF was now been re invented as DEFRA.

22,282 cattle were slaughtered in 2006.

After the end of the Badger Dispersal Trial  RBCT in 2006, Defra cracked down hard on cattle movements and ramped up testing.

 Pre movement testing was introduced in a valiant attempt to find this hidden reservoir of Tuberculosis in cattle.

The 2011 map showed the annual testing area as solid red, increased by several miles from Defra's original 2010 model. As far as badger could walk?


34,617 cattle were slaughtered in 2011.

Fast forward to the 2012 announcement of several new annual testing areas.

Please excuse the home made map - but as you can see, many buffer counties and those with sporadic and expanding problems now require annual tests and preMT of their cattle.

No action on badgers.

In 2012, there were 4919 new herd incidents and Defra slaughtered 37,734 animals.

 
.

We think the new format of Defra's maps looks a tad truncated. In fact, very odd. We prefer the old GB format.

Wales has devolved completely - as have its figures in most of the press reports. And Scotland's head is removed.

Nevertheless the GB map, minus its top and left side, we print here - straight from Defra's new 2013 pdf file,
which explains their new cattle measures.

Still nothing on badgers at all. And the cattle killing goes on with much enthusiasm.

Thus a sobering fact is that almost 50 years ago when that first TB infected badger was formally identified in 1971, the incidence of cattle reactors in Britain was 0.045%, with 1,834 cattle slaughtered under TB orders.

This was before badgers were made a protected species and any action had been taken to control them due to zTB.

In Great Britain, during the 12 months to April 2020 Defra slaughtered 40,487 cattle under TB orders associated with 3,972 new outbreaks. 

In fact this country (GB) has been slaughtering around 30,000 to 40,000 cattle each year for the last 10 years associated with 4,000 to 5,000 new TB outbreaks annually. 

 So, by giving infected badgers the ultimate cult status, and their ancestral home a grade 1 listing, it is readily apparent that we are now in a far worse situation than we were more than 50 years ago. And it would be naive to assume that badgers with advanced tuberculous did not suffer from this disease.

More on this from a group of veterinary surgeons, veterinary pathologists and others who worked on this disease during the 1970s and 1980s - and almost had it beaten - can be read in the Veterinary Record.

Meanwhile, our graph, prepared a few years ago now, shows the numbers of cattle slaughtered in relation to the dumbing down, and finally abandonment, of any semblance of badger control in response to outbreaks of zTB in cattle herds in Great Britain.

.

 

Vets could do it better? Really?

 

 In the  Veterinary Record    well known political vet, Dick Sibley, a pal of arch badgerist, Dr. Brian May, writes of government's handling of the current Covid 19 pandemic : 

If this was an animal disease outbreak, with similar infectivity, economic connotations and variable clinical outcomes, vets would apply the four pillars of disease control to manage it: biosecurity, biocontainment, surveillance and resilience.

 

The key to managing Covid-19, if it were a disease in a veterinary context, would be to apply the key four pillars of control concurrently.

and:

Livestock vets have experience of successfully managing national disease outbreaks. They understand the confounding factors that are important when determining strategies for delivering disease prevention and control on a major scale, including health, welfare, economics and political palatability: issues that are perplexing current policymakers.

Really? And he can say that with a straight face? 

Political vets like Sibley, hand in hand with political scientists such as Bourne and co., have presided in our lifetimes over the most horrendous slaughter of animals and poultry, in the attempt to stop various zoonotic and non zoonotic diseases. From salmonella in hens, through BSE, the unforgivable carnage-by-computer during FMD and of course, all the while rumbling in the background was that veterinary opportunity - zoonotic tuberculosis.

 

 

Defra stats show that from 2001 - 2019, with the quiet compliance of Sibley and many other livestock vets, GB slaughtered 612,150 cattle. The annual cull of reactors and 2x inconclusives, gamma positives etc. now regularly overtaking our graph of 2008, and totalling over 44,000 per year in Great Britain. 

So how do Sibley's pillars of disease control stack up with leaving a wildlife reservoir hooching with infection to run freely across our farms, while testing and shooting anything that has the misfortune to fall over the detritis it leaves behind? Shoot the big black and white animal but leave the small one, because the public (and Brian May) love it?

From   a paper published earlier this year, the contrast between our tested sentinel cattle and infected badgers is quantified thus:

 In the UK, at any one time, there are 29,871 cattle infected with TB compared with 91,643 TB infected badgers. Three times as many badgers with TB as cattle, in other words.

This is of course exacerbated by our having the largest badger numbers per sq km in Europe. The median European badger density is 0.29 - 0.55 per sq km. In the British Isles, it is 4.3 - 5.4 although in some areas it is over 30 per sq km.

More on just how well Defra / APHA and Mr Sibley's cohorts have managed the disease we call 'zoonotic tuberculosis' can be found in this link 

And in our opinion, none come out smelling very sweetly, let alone criticising government - their paymaster - for its handling of Covid 19. 

There is an old saying concerning a hole and a shovel, and when, with numbers of tested dead cattle rocketing to over 44,000 per year, perhaps it's time to throw away the shovel. 

 

A pertinent letter, re cattle vaccines.

Published in this week's Farmers Guardian 21/08/2020  (sorry - no link) is a letter from veterinary surgeon, David Denny, B.Vet.Med. We print it in full, below. With thanks.

Replying to an article describing the plans to begin (new) cattle vaccine trials, Mr. Denny comments:

“BTB cattle vaccine trials to start” (News Olivia Midgley 24 July 2020) is a ‘kite flying’ exercise, resulting it yet more of our money and time being squandered.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) which issued the license for BCG in badgers, stated “Any decisions as to whether the vaccine is suitable for use in any particular situation are outside the scope of the VMD’s statutory role in assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of veterinary products and are the responsibility of the end user”.

Thus vaccine efficacy didn't come into the licencing at all. Just that the BCG vaccine 'did no harm'. Mr. Denny doesn't mince his words, describing the VMD as " no more than a ‘rubber stamping’ quango."

He continues:

"Those who consider vaccination should even be an option, are on another planet living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’. No vaccine exists, or ever will, which will prevent bTB infection in any mammal two legged or four. BCG is no longer routinely used in humans. It was hypothetically claimed that it was between 7 and 70% efficient at preventing the primary lesions in the lungs from spreading to the brain. It is now used on those with impaired immunity- HIV and on steroids; those who are incapable of responding!"

And as a cattle veterinarian practising in a serious TB hotspot, Mr. Denny quite rightly, rounds on the latest politician to jump aboard this particular gravy train.

"Defra secretary George Eustice states “no none wants to continue to the cull of a protective species indefinitely”.

He should get his priorities right. No one wants to devastate herds, demoralising families by slaughtering cattle indefinitely."

Comparing the eradication of zoonotic Tuberculosis with one of the army's ‘principles of war’,  Mr Denny points out that there must be "selection and maintenance of aim. "

"And the aim must be eliminate the bTB infection from the badger populations."

He concludes:

"The CVO claimed “A multipronged approach is needed”. NO. Only a targeted cull of the infected badgers, together with a modicum of common sense, will be of significant effect. All the components for a cull exist, but there is a devious, corrupt and orchestrated opposition to one, by those- professors and cronies- together with the animal rights with their dubious agendas".

Ends..........................................................

In our two previous postings,  here   and    here we gave examples and references for previous trials of cattle vaccines. From the 1940s onwards, none were successful, and piggy backing a DIVA test of dubious provenance on to that, is a recipe for disaster. And trade bans.

 It has also been pointed out many times that the enormous challange faced by our cattle, from infected and infectious badgers, would be overwhelming. But we'll mention it again, anyway.

UK- Stockyard to Graveyard?

As the re-wilders - or whatever they're calling themselves this week - gush about beavers and badgers, bison and wild boar, or even lynx, bears and other extinct - or not so extinct - furry critters, we ponder over the news grabbing headlines for livestock farmers.

Vaccination for zoonotic tuberculosis? That'll do it.

We've explored this path many times before, not least in  our last posting. So why do our primary Farming Union, our new Chief Veterinary Officer, veterinary organisations and even some farmers support yet another money wasting effort to repeat the errors of the past?

As the Zuckerman report pointed out in 1980, four long decades ago, vaccinating cattle on a wide scale in the 40s and 50s did not work. See below:

105. BCG vaccination of cattle has been tried in several countries, including the UK and France, but it has been found neither practical nor effective.

In this country MAFF conducted two vaccination trials during the 1940s and 1950s, the results of which have not been widely published. The first trial ran for eleven years and involved four herds of cattle which were known to have naturally-occurring bovine TB. Forty-seven tuberculin-test-negative calves were vaccinated at six-monthly intervals with BCG made from the bovine tubercle bacillus. At the end of the trial period 25 per cent of the vaccinated animals, and 50 per cent of their 'contacts', were found to have tuberculous lesions.

       106. The second trial involved considerably more cattle, but did not last as long as the first, owing to the start of the area-eradication programme. Some 5,000 cattle in 73 herds were involved, and at the end of the trial, post-mortem examinations revealed that 30 per cent of the vaccinated animals, and 50 per cent of the non-vaccinated, had TB lesions.

And bang up to date, the  OIE  (Office des Internationale Epizootics)  has similar reservations, with the vaccination of cattle advised to be limited to countries where test / slaughter are either not affordable or socially  acceptable (P.22 in the above OIE document) :

 Bovine tuberculosis is an intractable problem where ‘test-and-cull’ policies are not affordable or socially acceptable, or where Mycobacterium bovis infection is sustained by wildlife reservoirs.

More trials are planned in third world countries, as described  in this paper. 

Our newly minted CVO, Dr. Christine Middlemass is also on the crusade, waxing lyrical in Farmers Guardian about a new tool in the box.

No. BCG vaccination is a very old tool. And from the 1940s onwards, when used on cattle, it hasn't worked. So now a development of a DIVA test is to be trialled, to identify the 'reactor' cattle that actually are not reactors at all. We are not a third world country.Yet. But for our beleaguered cattle farmers, it may feel like that.

Vaccination is not a panacea - for any disease. And in the case of our cattle,  when exposure to wildlife residues of bacteria are so 'challenging' ( that means high. ) it is unlikely to have much effect.

Immunity relies on either a natural response or an  'acquired' response to exposure. Acquired response is by vaccination, but immunity is very dependent on what epidemiologits call 'dose response'. In other words, if a single dose is very high, or the candidate is exposed to multiple small doses, the challenge is too great and disease is the result. 

The excretions from TB infected cattle have been found to be miniscule - and of course, if a reaction is seen to the TB test, they are shot. Whereas infected badgers contaminate our grassland, water courses and everything they come into contact with and which our cattle share. Even their milliary lesions ( microscopically tiny) are hooching with cfus - colony forming units - of bacteria. 
For the level of that infectivety, see answers to our Parliamentary Questions.

 And after ruminating on those 300,000 cfu's in 1ml of urine, squittered across grazing land in 30ml incontinent dribbles, we asked how many cfus did it take to infect a cow? The answer was just 70 cfu

We are fast approaching the situation in this country, where our once proud cattle industry is relegated to the status of the third world. Unable to trade: unable to export.

Dr. Middlemass ended her FG piece with this paragraph:

"Vaccination is potentially an effective tool to reduce infection in cattle, but ultimately we do not want to have the pathogen out there which can infect cattle.”

And that last sentence is probably the only bit worth mentioning in this whole sorry affair.

From stockyard of the world, to our livestock industry's graveyard - in three generations.