Clarkson, Kaleb and badgers.

We have been waiting for the TB balloon to go up, as Jeremy Clarkson let rip into some of the more 'unusual' systems, farmers and in particular livestock farmers, have to endure in his series on Amazon Prime. 

Presently we are subjected to a blizzard of bad publicity, often headed by the farming unions and levy payers' representatives apologising for our very existence. Shoot a cow, plant a tree and sell your carbon credits so that the great and the good can Carry on Partying. Or attending far flung jamborees in pursuit of  Net Zero. 

In series 2 of Clarkson's farm, Jeremy met the crazy situation of a fledgling business which had lost half its dairy herd .  The cause, was definitely badger related. So in typical Clarkson speke, he had the answer:

"We can shoot them?”

"No, you can't do that" (shock horror from the farm's agent )

"I'll run over them with my big tractor"

"No, that would never  do"

"I'll fumigate their sett then”.

"Nope. Their ancestral home has a grade 1 listing. You can't do that either."

Jeremy very accurately described badgers as 'like teenagers'. Out all night, wreck land and crops, eat his hedgehogs, spread a very serious disease, then come home and sleep all day. And are untouchable.

The first casualty to cross Jeremy's path was a young dairy farmer, Emma Ledbury, who had just set up a milk vending business. But in this week's Farmers Guardian, the second is young Kaleb Cooper  who has invested in 21 dairy cows. 

The farm on which they now reside, has been hit with a TB breakdown, so the merry- go- round of testing and more testing, (of cattle at least) slaughter and stress, goes on. And on. Welcome to our world. 

These two cases are high profile, and Amazon Prime's series with Jeremy heading it is an ideal vehicle to show the crazy, expensive and futile situation which we have endured for more years than we have been scribbling this blog. Which sadly is approaching two decades. 

We have told the stories of  whole herd slaughter in Staffordshire, and individual cases of named companion cattle . The end is the same. We shoot the big black and white ones, and ignore the smaller, endemically  diseased black and white ones.

A non-binary spoligotype?

 

We posted two years ago, the story of an Irish cat  which after several years of veterinary treatment, was X rayed and found to have generalised skeletal tuberculosis. The cat was euthanised at seven years old.

Samples (plural) were taken from this cat, and the strain or spoligotype found to be Danish type 1331, uniquely used in badger vaccines. The paper explains:

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.

So, culture tests, PCR etc. and on several bits of this now very dead cat, all showed Danish 1331.

But roll forward two years and the authors have withdrawn their paper, citing their spoligotyping as 'unsafe', thus negating their conclusions.

 "An error in the interpretation of the genomic sequence data and the fact that the isolate was not the BCG strain reported in the manuscript"

So what have we got here? A young cat, treated for three years and eventually found to have zoonotic tuberculosis, samples (plural) from which  apparently all showed Danish type 1331? A peer reviewed result, and now it's not strain 1331? But no information as to exactly what the strain is. How very 'Irish'.

So has spoligotyping  (DNA matches) become fashionably 'non-binary'? 

DNA is binary. It's either a match or not. Yes or no, but not the milkman, as we were told. Not he/ she/ they/ them or whatever the chosen term is today. 

But the 21st century has turned science on its head, and we now have non binary spoligotypes? Really?

Rural Harmony??????????????????

Today was made even more bizarre with the announcement of a knighthood for a superannuated guitar player with a degree in astro physics. Part of the reason given was 'services to music' - fair enough. But the other reason was his wildlife escapades, and the creation of what was euphemistically described as 'rural harmony'.

The musician is guitar player  Dr. Brian May, who hopes that his newly conferred knighthood will give his causes 'more clout'.

Maybe a few more people will listen to me than would otherwise, you know, if it’s Sir Brian on the phone,” said May, who spoke to The Associated Press via Zoom from his house in Windlesham, Surrey. 

The report explains:

May has campaigned against badger culling and fox hunting through an animal welfare group he founded in 2010 — named Save Me after the 1980 Queen song.

We have explored Dr. May's involvement with all things rural, since 2012 when that stunning piece of artwork appeared behind him, at a launch of his charity 'Save Me'. But as we said at the time, exactly what is this now ennobled musician (or star gazer) trying to 'save' badgers from? 

Not tuberculosis, as they are an extremely successful host of this Grade 3 zoonosis.  Until the disease overwhelms them in a painful and excruciating death. By which time, the bacteria they carry will have been available to any mammal crossing their paths. Territorial scrapping and bite wounding being a common way of introducing micobacterium bovis into the body. As below.

We believe Dr. May is interested in vaccinating badgers. But that route, despite the hype, was mainly to find out if vaccinating these creatures harmed them. Not the efficacy  of the procedure and the effect on the shedding of bacteria into the wider environment. For that we had to go to Ireland, where we discovered a domestic cat had been pts after several years of ongoing antibiotics for shoulder and movement problems. 

But the stand out piece from those reports was the strain of zTB that had infected the cat and the length of time it was able to be traced after badgers had been vaccinated.

The strain was unique. Danish strain 1331 used only in badger vaccines. And after vaccination:

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)."

Finally, we think another much loved country dweller may be less than happy with Dr. May's campaigning.  Hedgehog  numbers are in steep decline, while badger numbers are 'booming' as described in the piece on the link.

 But as we have found out,  to the great and the good, (and Sir Brian) some animals are more equal than others. A very Happy New Year.

 

 

They get there in the end

 

Following on from our last posting, which reported a significant drop of 20 per cent in cattle slaughterings, this week's press is reporting another bit of good news for long suffering cattle farmers.

Now that Doris has taken his wife out of the cabinet office, and a new broom has cleared the green blob from Defra, at last a bit of common sense is surfacing.

Farmers Guardian headline indicates a Ministerial 'rethink on ending culling'.

If you remember, George Eustice was quoted widely as saying 'we can't keep shooting badgers indefinitely'. Obviously his opinion didn't extend to slaughtering our sentinel tested cattle indefinitely and in greater numbers.  But let that pass.

Now freed of the influence of a couple of Goldsmiths, a Minister who was a supporter of the CAWF (Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation) and led by Doris's vegetarian wife, a bit of common sense has emerged. From new minister Mark Spencer, MP:

In an exclusive interview with Farmers Guardian, Mr Spencer said it was ‘wrong’ to set a fixed date to end badger culls, without taking into account epidemiological need.

Last year, Defra confirmed the licensing of new intensive culls would end after 2022, following a personal intervention from then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

It was widely rumoured that Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie, influenced the decision, which caused outrage in farming circles.

 Mr Spencer said: “We all want to stop shooting badgers and the way to stop shooting badgers is to eradicate TB.

In the report Mr. Spencer also points out:

“I think we need to follow the science here and look at what actually works. I am afraid you come to the conclusion that vaccination in areas around where TB is spreading to, with a cull in the middle of that area where it is very intensive, is probably the most practical way of dealing with TB."

And the way to find out if a hotspot is developing, with cattle as the sentinels of the problem, and herds nailed to the proverbial under restriction, is to use those details from the Risk Assessment which every new breakdown has from a member of APHA. 

If a new breakdown herd has had no bought in cattle since the herd's last clear test, and no cattle contact, it's 'Houston 'we have a problem'.

All that information should used, not filed to gather dust. 

You know it makes sense.

Mr Spencer concludes:

“The only way other countries have eradicated TB is to get (rid of) that sponge of TB in the natural population and unfortunately, badgers are part of that problem.

Quite.

---

We are not surprised

 

The farming press have reported this week that cattle slaughtered in England have dropped by 20 per cent. Similar drops have been reported in Wales and Scotland.

Farmers Guardian took the front page slot with the headline addressed to the new PM, 'Call for a Rethink on Badger cull' and long piece including new Defra stats, from June 2021 - July 2022.

The push follows the publication of new Defra figures which reveal between July 2021 and June 2022, a total of 24,398 animals have been slaughtered in England, a drop of 20 per cent, while in Wales the number was 9,713, a decrease of 16 per cent. 

 

The phrase, previously parroted by the now culled Secretary of state, George Eustice MP was sold as 'We can't keep culling badgers indefinitely' : his political masters telling him that culling tuberculous badgers could and should be replaced by vaccinations. Farmers Guardian piece continues:

The recent phase out of badger culling in England was widely reported to have been introduced after a personal intervention from former PM Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie. 

 But this mantra goes beyond the fragrant Carrie and the then PM, her bed mate, Boris. Defra was infiltrated by a claque of badgerists, led by a Goldsmith, who having lost his seat as an MP was parachuted into position at Defra. And not to count beavers or stack paper clips. Zac Goldsmith has form, being part of the Bow group, which as far back as 2012 was proposing vaccinating badgers as opposed to any sort of cull for a highly infectious, zoonotic disease. Except sentinel tested cattle of course.

Also involved in the plan was former minister at Defra, Theresa Villiers. All were members of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation    together with Johnson's father (Stanley) and few more well placed movers and shakers, happily dismantling common sense in general and livestock farming in particular. 

Number 22 of 30 on this published CAWF wish list read as follows:

22. Introduce a national badger vaccination scheme instead of badger culling. End the culling of a protected species which scientists have urged makes no meaningful contribution to the control of Bovine TB in cattle.

Now our readers will remember no doubt the utterings of 'scientists' who uttered those words. And they may also remember our 2007 posting which gave the context of John Bourne's boast to the EFRA committee, of the political steer his group had received to trash a supposedly independent 'trial'.

Not that any such trial was ever needed, as many badger clearances in the years following the TB eradication sweeps of the mid 1960s had all given similar results, with Thornbury, Glos the most successful. We asked why this should be. And the PQ written 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] 

 

So as the new team at Defra take on the 'green blob' we wish them well. They would also be advised to research badger vaccination - thoroughly. As we have done. This posting from 2014 gives a fair overview. And please do not forget that dead cat.

(Cartoon originally shown with permission of the late Ken Wignall, after publication in Farmers Guardian)

Our industry deserves far better than the creative inertia which has battered it for the last several decades. 

'World leading' - at something

 

Minister for Defra, Victoria Prentis is quoted recently as describing the Department's plans for biosecurity as a 'top priority' to protect consumers, and reassure trading partners of UK standards of animal and plant health.

She said:

Biosecurity remains a top priority for the Government, not only to protect consumers, but also to ensure that trading partners and industry have strong assurance of the UK's standards of food safety, animal and plant health.

On 16 February 2022, the Government also announced the allocation of £200 million for a programme of investment into world-leading research facilities to boost the UK’s fight against zoonotic diseases, including avian flu and bovine tuberculosis. The money will be spent on a state-of-the-art revamp of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) scientific laboratories at Weybridge – enhancing the UK’s already world-leading scientific and veterinary capability.

 Those 'world leading'  facilities will of course match our world leading  (or at least European) statistics' in the incidence of zoonotic Tuberculosis in our oft tested cattle. 

An extract from that paper explains:

During 2019, the overall EU proportion of cattle herds infected with, or positive for, TB remained very low (0.8%, which was 16,420 out of 1,961,990 herds). 

Fourteen MS reported no case of TB in cattle (Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden). 

 TB in bovine animals was reported by 14 MS and was heterogeneous and much spatially clustered with herd prevalence ranging from absence to 11.7% within the United Kingdom in England.

At least we are 'world leading'  at something.

So as imports pour into our increasingly forested, re-wilded and concreted country, via hastily concocted trade deals from areas of the world where 'standards' are debateable and exotic diseases rife,  Ms Prentis’s world leading facility will certainly be needed in the future.

Ever decreasing circles

We have not posted anything on this site for six months, mainly because what we are seeing and hearing, reading and growling over is repeated guff. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum. Hence the headline - Ever decreasing circles.

Even this week, the Guardian  has the headline, 'Badger culls do not prevent cattle TB'. Really?

Of course what they should have said was half hearted political culls, reduce, but do not clear zoonotic TB from cattle. Historic data shows the effects of a cull in graphic detail:

And our Parliamentary Questions, almost two decades ago gave an unequivocal answer to the question, just why was Thornbury so successful?

"The fundamental difference between the Thornbury area and other areas in south west England, where bovine tuberculosis was a problem was the systematic removal of badgers from the Thornbury area. No other species was removed. No other contemporaneous change was identified that could have accounted for the reduction in TB incidence within the area." [157949] 24th March 2004. Col. 824W 

'Reduction' is a huge understatement there, because NO cases of TB in cattle were found in at least a decade after the badger clearance.

The RBCT, on which the current culls were based, was a shambles. And never expected to deliver anything other than that which its political masters intended.  And its master in chief, one Professor John Bourne said exactly that  to the Efra Committee in 2007, with what was described as a 'smirk' on his face. 

Taking out 70 per cent of badgers, from 70 per cent of disparate patches of land, some with 'No Entry' signs, was never going to be the whole and complete solution. But it survived Judicial Reviews and farmers put their collective hands in pockets and after a couple of pilot schemes, the cull areas were off. It has been observed that with hard boundaries of for example, the coast, or indeed another cull area, success was increased substantially. 

Management of a TB infected wildlife population cannot be abandoned when it affects our cattle and many other mammals. Our industry has invested too much in the face of misplaced anthropomorphic sentimentalism and unchallenged, downright lies.

Even now, our current Secretary of State, the echo chamber that is George Eustice is prattling on about vaccinating badgers.  Why? His own department has spent oodles of taxpayer's money   doing just that and found it has had no effect of cattle TB whatsoever. (That link also has reference to the Brunton report, which logs impressive data from the cull areas.)

But we digress. The exudate from a vaccinated badger, a unique Danish strain of m.bovis, only used in badger vaccines,  and available for over 300 days after administration, has killed at least one cat. 

To re-phrase that, one cat that has been examined, its TB riddled body pm'd, lesions spoligotyped and papers written up and published. There may be more.

And so the circles continue. We wrote in 2006 about Bronze Age burial mound  at Brownslade, Pembrokeshire, being excavated. And again in 2016 similar sacrilege inflicted on a graveyard. Now the same thing is happening in Dudley,  where an 88 year old pensioner is finding human bones, including skulls, gathered from a nearby graveyard, scattered across her garden, the Telegraph reports. 

This overgrown rat, with a white stripe down its face has acquired more 'rights' than the rest of us put together. Unwelcome, but untouchable. Unmoveable. 

While researching this catch up posting, I came across a piece we published last year, comparing this country to a banana republic and if you follow the money trail of repeated 'research', obfuscation and downright lies told by successive administrations concerning zoonotic tuberculosis, now hanging on the coat tails of climate change, (kill a cow - fly a plane?) the conclusion can only be that we are there. 

Enjoy.

  

 

APHA - results of cultures for alpaca Geronimo

 Today, Apha have  published the culture results  for the alpaca at the centre of a three year stand off  after several positive Enferplex TB tests.

We have covered the story of 'Geronimo'  in several posts  which started with this one  in 2018 

Apha (Animal and Plant Health Agency) explain in today's press release that:

"In September, APHA specialist vets completed an initial post-mortem examination of the animal, which revealed the presence of TB-like lesions. These have since been undergoing further testing to determine the source of infection.

APHA has today confirmed that it was not possible to culture bacteria from tissue samples taken at post-mortem examination, meaning that it will not be possible to carry out Whole Genome Sequencing in order to try to understand how the alpaca caught the disease. This does not mean the animal was free of bTB infection because it had previously twice tested positive using highly specific, validated and reliable tests." 

Clarkson v. badgers - Senseless diatribe.

It was only a matter of time before the hilarious antics of Jeremy Clarkson, while trying out new toys on 'Clarkson's Farm', came head to head with badgers, and in particular their arch protectors, the Badger Trust.

And sure enough in this week's  Agriland press   the Trust are in full spate. Amongst the adjectives are 'offensive diatribe'   which the trust ascribes to Mr. Clarkson. But the mention of 'senseless slaughter' and their bold description of Bovine TB  as a cattle based disease, does the Trust no favours; it is infantile and inaccurate prattling. 

Neither does their total denial, despite all the evidence since the 1970s of the complete reverse, (much of it recorded on this site) that in the UK, badgers are a primary reservoir of this zoonotic disease feeding back into our tested sentinel cattle.

The letter maintains:  

"Badger Trust, as the voice for badgers in England and Wales, is pushing back at yet another attempt to make badgers the scapegoats for bovine TB, even though 94% of cattle infections are from cow to cow. 

You blame badgers for the spread of ‘TB’ (it’s bTB – bovine tuberculosis, a respiratory disease mainly affecting cattle),” the letter  added. 

This infantile, and wholly inaccurate response will no doubt rattle a few Trust collecting tins. But it won't stop the reality of infected and infectious tuberculous badgers, upspilling this disease into any mammal that has the misfortune to cross their path.  

And it won't stop them dying a prolonged and miserable death from tuberculosis, long after they've infected their cubs and other mammals. The Badger Trust, holding hands with the RSPCA describe this process as ' a slight wheeziness'.  The reality is the animal they say they want to protect', is drowning in its own infected body fluids, and slowly starving, as the emaciated carcase below shows.  

This site has been explaining, very patiently, the history of the eradication of zoonotic tuberculosis in the UK, and other countries, for almost two decades. The 500 parliamentary questions which support it give many answers which may upset the Badger Trust, but which nevertheless are a window of truth into some very delving questions. Read and understand please, before committing your ignorance to paper. 

Until then would this infantile prattle has no credibility. 

Meanwhile, someone needs a reality check, and that is not Jeremy Clarkson.

 

TB or not TB ?

 

A very strange report today. Geronimo, the black alpaca for four years living on very borrowed time, after not one but two positive Enferplex TB tests, has his post-mortem results. 

At 1 o’clock, the BBC reported no visible lesions were found, this headline news illustrated by a screaming crowd outside Defra headquarters, howling for blood. The source of the report is not known.

But an hour later, the  Chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemass reported by Agriland.ie and here indicated that pathologists had in fact found suspect lesions in this animal’s liver (see pm pic of alpaca liver above) and some lymph glands. And that, as is usual, further testing would be carried out. 

This involves culturing samples to identify acid fast bacteria, and if appropriate, the spoligotype of m.bovis responsible. 

This is normal procedure after a post mortem where TB is suspected. It takes several weeks.

As farmers, some of whom have had the dubious pleasure of presenting reactor cattle to Defra’s mincing machine, we are unanimously appalled at the treatment this animal had during his last hours. 

It is usual under many circumstances including this one, that the animal is put down quietly on the farm. But that dignity and respect was not afforded to Geronimo, and we understand that that was the choice of Helen MacDonald, his owner. A media circus was what she wanted.

So having courted the press, in his company, haltered and calm for weeks,  Geronimo’s owner abandoned him to a mob of ‘protectors’ and police, while booted and suited vets attempted to catch him. All strangers. The ministry vets then had to identify him, ‘isolated’ with four more black alpacas, then halter him with an ill fitting cattle halter and drag him to a padded horse box through a mob.

 And his owner? Skulking away from the cameras. Leaving this animal for others to cope with. Appalling. Absolutely appalling. 

Personally, we would have corralled the press mob and the so called supporters and insisted the owner present this alpaca in a calm and secure way. The circus we saw was for the media and certainly not for the welfare of this animal. 

End of the road?

 

We wrote of a black alpaca called Geronimo   in a posting in 2018.

Imported from New Zealand, into a UK TB hotspot, the animal subsequently tested positive for the disease and Defra's death notice was served.

After almost four years, some big money spent and several court appeals later, the animal is still alive and is due for  destruction  this week. 

The Sun, carrying the story on the link above, now puts the animal's owner in the firing line, as she has vowed 'to take the bullet' meant for her alpaca. 

It's probably worth mentioning that the number of cattle subject to Deathrow's paperwork in those four years, has exceeded 40,000 in each of the last three years. A peak in  2018, can be viewed on this link when 44,654 animals were compulsorily slaughtered after failing either the skin test or the notorious gamma ifn blood test.  A cumulative total of 130,113 cattle were condemned 2018 - 2020.

We also discovered some years ago that Defra were massaging  figures for camelid casualties of the zoonotic tuberculosis epidemic, now entrenched in the wildlife of GB. While individual cattle deaths were recorded, with alpacas, numbers published were restricted to a single group or herd. And even included herds which had had contact or were 'tethered' to the initial outbreak.  

We have been unable to ascertain whether this is still the case. 

But this is what tuberculosis in an infected alpaca looks like at post mortem.

Edit update:

There is of course another  ante mortem test for camelids, one which many people will now be familiar with after 17 months of covid. And that is PCR.  (Geronimo's owner is criticising the test, we understand)

In 2013, it was pretty obvious that trying to shoe-horn other mammals into the bovine test scenario was not going to work, and the owners of alpacas were particularly hard hit. So a group decided to self fund a Proof of Concept   study into whether PCR would be a more appropriate test  for these animals.

It worked, just as the PCR test for infected badgers  worked, when Owen Paterson's department threw £742,000  to Liz Wellington at Warwick University to develop her test to identify infected badger setts.

Sadly for reasons known only to themselves, neither test was accepted by the British Alpaca Society or Defra whose single collective brain cell is still in denial for camelids and badgers - if not for cattle..

Follow the money

 

We've pondered long and hard while scribbling this blog, about how genuine 'science' as practised decades ago, can be at best ignored and worse, denigrated and made the subject of derision. As is anyone who dares to question the current mantra of kill cattle, cattle cattle - and vaccinate badgers.

We've seen consultation after consultation, all skewed towards preordained conclusions, even to the extent of our current Secretary of State announcing the result , ahead of reading the replies. And we've read the Hansard reports of the RBCT debacle, where it's chief wizard  declared with some pride, that his trial had to reach a preconceived and totally political, conclusion.  

Follow the data? Our co editor, taking a lead from the Financial Times,  together with his own research, has a tale which makes the 2015 'cash for questions' scandal look like 'Listen with mother'. 

Cash up front will get you ringside seat with anyone from the Prime Minister down, and including HRH Prince Charles, whose nephew, Ben Elliot  (by his marriage to Camilla) runs this seedy set up.

Anyone who stumps up £250,000 can have a seat within the inner sanctum, known as the 'Advisory Board' and is guaranteed access to Boris Johnson,  chancellor Sunak and others. Failed MP, now in the Lords and parachuted into Defra, Zac Goldsmith is also mentioned in dispatches.

 So after 538 Parliamentary Questions, 17 years of gathering research on policies which worked to eradicate zoonotic Tuberculosis and more importantly, those which did not, we have a government bought and paid for. A government which wants to leave a reservoir of this zoonotic disease in wildlife, kill more cattle and vaccinate any badger which happens to enter a peanut laced cage, despite the published evidence of a very dead cat,  carrying the same  unique genotype of zTB found in badger vaccines. 

And we in the UK dare to criticise the corruption of other country's governments? Really?  

A 'banana republic' is described as one where a government functions poorly for its citizens while disproportionately benefitting a corrupt and elite group group or individual. 

As we said, follow the money.

Creative Inertia

 'Creative inertia' was a phrase used in a TV sit-com a few years ago, where the civil servants guided their minister through his duties. Or not as the case may be. The resultant circular tour was known as 'creative inertia' where things appeared to be proceeding - but were not. In fact they were going backwards at an alarming rate, or at best, staying the same.

And so we come to the subject of this blog. And a reminder - if that was ever needed - that this country's low point in disease eradication came in 1986. In that year GB reported less than 100 herds with breakdowns, and 638 cattle were slaughtered.

Fast forward over many dilutions of Ministerial badger policy - none of them of any benefit to cattle - and we arrive at today's total shambles. New TBagger groups, all searching for an instant solution, and failing to look over their collective shoulders to what had been tried and failed, many times before.

 We've explored these in detail in past postings, but they do bear repeating - if only to remind the newbies that the result of their direction of travel will be more dead cattle, and very little else. 

After the TB eradication sweeps in the late 50s and 60s, a couple of persistent blots on MAFF's landscape spoilt an otherwise clean sheet. A fierce Scotsman, William Tait  was sent to Cornwall to clean up that patch. His efforts. brutal though they were (on cattle herds) failed to stem the tide  of TB but his steam cleaning of the old Cornish cob barns was responsible for not a few collapses.

It wasn't until Roger Muirhead from Gloucestershire, in 1971 made a positive link to TB infected badgers, and started clearing infected groups from persistently infected farms, that the maps took on a different hue, and reactor numbers dropped.

In Ireland, almost two decades later Liam Downie  following a similar political badger love-in, applied the same cattle measures, and he too failed to reduce the number of reactors. In fact, because he was searching so diligently, numbers went up. 

And in 2004/5, the diminutive leader of the English badger dispersal trial, the RBCT, ( Professor John Bourne) constructed a politically led  manifesto to repeat all these cattle measures, and gradually, they are creeping insidiously into our lives. 

Add to that a few commercial opportunists  hand in hand with a couple of political vets, and Houston, we have a problem.

But we do have data. Collected patiently and carefully by both ministry vets and Meat Hygiene Service.

We are hearing some alarming 'factoids' about the universally applied intradermal skin test. But apparently only applicable in certain areas of England, Wales and Ireland it seems. In the rest of the world, it works just fine. Now if this internationally used skin test was missing X per cent of infected cattle in parts of Great Britain (take your pick on what figure is doing the rounds) but let's settle on 20 per cent, then eventually, all these disease riddled animals would end up in abattoirs. That's what happens. And they would go down the line past a Meat Hygiene operative, trained to look for evidence of - tuberculosis.

So how many do they find? Defra reported in 2014:

Between 2009 and 2013, over 11.1 million cattle were recorded as slaughtered in 313 slaughterhouses in GB. During this period 7,370 samples with lesions suspicious of bTB were submitted to AHVLA by meat inspection teams of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) leading to an overall rate of 0.66 submissions per 1,000 animals slaughtered.

M.bovis was identified in 5,366 [of those] samples.

But 5,366 out of 11.1 million cattle with culture positive evidence of zTB is not 20 per cent missed, or even 2 per cent. Its just under 0.05 per cent. Some reservoir. Some lie.

In 2019, according to Defra / AHDB figures  2.8m head were examined by MHS operatives, after passing through a GB abattoir.

Of those, 601 animals in the Defra stats for 2019 were confirmed as having zoonotic TB. (Line 15) 

Having girded up the blog calculator, we make 601 confirmed cases found from 2.8m inspections, which are designed specifically to look for TB in cattle, just 0.02 per cent of the national kill that year. 

That reservoir is a mirage. It doesn't exist. 

And similar results were found when in 2007, Defra spent £2.8m on the  Pathman project  (SE 3013) Reactor animals, 32 of which had lung lesions were subject to a complete post mortem, taking several hours. And samples taken to  support the 'undiscovered' reservoir of TB in cattle.  However their results were statistically very similar to the OV pms  done in 8 minutes in the abattoir.  And more importantly,  of all those samples, and those taken in a parallel project, not one was capable of onward transmission. Not a single one.

So fast forward to a 2020 report  by Defra on the current situation.  They confirm that 1986 was the low point for TB in our cattle, but fail to elucidate on why things have got  progressively worse. For that information, see this posting together with the Defra maps to illustrate.

From that 2020 report, one bit caught our attention:

Every breakdown herd has the dubious benefit of a Defra 'risk assessment', where a lot of questions are asked about the herd, how it is fed, how it relates to neighbouring herds etc.

 And the presence of wildlife, particularly badgers. The results for 2019, are shown on p.36 as follows:

At county level, the most common source of infection attributed within the HRA was badgers, with over 70% in Cornwall (78.0%), Staffordshire (71.5 %) and Shropshire (70.1%) (Table 3.2.1). 

 

Within the Edge Area, the source of infection with the highest contribution varied between counties. Derbyshire (61.4%), Cheshire (60.7%), Oxfordshire (55.2%), Northamptonshire (51.9%) and Warwickshire (50.3%)

 

 All had more than half of the weighted source attributed to badgers.

So why, when their own operatives in the field are producing data which attributes up to 78 per cent  of TB infections to badgers, are Defra's minions so hell bent on killing the sentinels of their own failed policies? That question was rhetorical, by the way.

The direction of travel appears to be more cattle tests, more sensitive cattle tests, more dead cattle  - and vaccinate badgers.  This despite the third party casualty  reported in Ireland, which blows a rather large hole in badger vaccine's  VMD limited liability status - 'to do no harm'. 

The (dead) Irish cat, we think, would disagree. 

An unelected, unaccountable influencer

 We have written before about the influence that our current prime minister's latest paramour has over our industry, and its health and welfare. 

Entrenched within the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) and with carefully placed colleagues, Carrie Symonds's  Beatrix Potter inspired wish list is gradually being unveiled from the corridors of power. 

The Farmers Guardian this week  reports on her demands to remove from office  the Secretary of State for DEFRA, George Eustice. The accusation, the paper affirms, is that Eustice is 'too close to the farming lobby'. 

As The Right Honourable Member was quite openly offering media briefings along the lines of the CAWF's wish list only weeks ago, and well ahead of a sham 'consultation' on the future of badger culling, we would dispute that. Eustice has history of following his masters' voice. 

And as George Dunn (Tenant Farmers Association) remarked in the FG piece, to find that we need look no further than the present prime minister's latest bed mate.

"If we are looking at where allegations of undue influence should be more aptly applied, then we should look no further than within the private quarters of Number 10 Downing Street."

It's one thing the agricultural press passing an opinion on the 'undue influence' Symonds holds over Johnson and policy, but last week the Mail on Sunday ran an article about the pair.  While the main thrust was the decoration of the Downing Street flat, or more particularly, who financed it and when,  for hard pressed livestock farmers, the Henry Davies cartoon says it all. 

Carrie wants to 'save badgers' by vaccinating them. That is No 22 of the CAWF wishlist a screen shot of which is below. Apologies - use zoom to see detail. 

The document has long disappeared from the CAWF site, but is 'saved' here.  

After the cat, a herd of deer culled.

Despite acknowledging the success of the farmer led badger culls, with cattle breakdowns and slaughterings down by an average of over 50 per cent, our Secretary of State, with his eye firmly fixed on his advancement, is still whittering on about stopping the culls, in favour of vaccination.

Are his advisers not aware of the vaccinated badger (s) which developed enough disease from the vaccine to infect a perfectly  innocent young cat? Or is he listening with his ears shut?

Following that story, the BBC report a  cull of deer  at Dyrham Park, in south Gloucestershire.  (Picture credit - Sarah Cox)

An entire herd of deer at an historic park has been culled due to an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB).

The 70 deer at Dyrham Park were put down after a 10-year battle by estate staff to stop the disease spreading.

There has been a herd at the park, between Bristol and Bath, for 300 years.

Several cattle farmers have also had a ten year ( or more) battle trying to keep zoonotic TB out of their herds - but let that pass. The report continues:

The National Trust said over the past decade measures including adding extra fencing, carrying out a badger vaccination programme and stopping cattle grazing in the park had all been tried, without success.

Yup , been there, done that - got many tee shirts.  But now we see from the report on the cat, that at least some scientists are waking up to the fact that vaccinating any old badger in the field, regardless of its current health status, may not be the most sensible of ideas. And may also breach the terms of its VMD (Veterinary Medicines Directorate)  license. 

But when you look at the wanderings of badgers across pasture land, and add to that their incontinent but highly effective  sprinkler system, and add to that the amount of bacteria they excrete, it's no wonder any mammal encountering this detritus becomes infected too. Whether that's with the strain TB already in badgers in the area, or the Danish BCG strain. 

With thanks to this site for permission to use the picture  taken with a drone over snow covered fields. 

To any new readers to this site, we'll re cap on the amount of bacteria carried by infected badgers, especially in their urine.  From our Parliamentary Questions  we gleaned these nuggets:

Badgers with kidney lesions can excrete up to 300,000 cfu (colony forming units) of m.bovis bacteria in each 1 ml of urine: and they void up to 30ml in each incontinent squirt..

Just 70 cfu can infect a cow, and 1 cfu a calf.

The National Trust say they hope to restock Dyrham Park with deer. Why? They've tried fencing, no cattle grazing and vaccination of local badgers. But as others have already found to their cost, until they clear the Park of infected badgers, anything else is a total waste of time. 

How arrogant. How sad.

 

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.