A Happy New Year - not.

For a couple of Devon farmers, the last few weeks have been anything but happy. A couple of weeks before Christmas, farmer Michael Ashton's lovely jersey herd - [link] was reduced by a quarter, after 45 cattle were revealed as reactors. The reports carried an extraordinary comment attributed to the NFU, that:

" ...a fox may have dragged a dead, infected badger across pasture land and passed on the disease."

Whaaaat? Why bring a bloody fox into the equation? A half dead badger crawling around can easily infect a herd of cattle with no help at all from anything else. He's a mobile WMD. (Weapon of Mass Destruction)

(Picture credit - North Devon Journal.)

And the news this week is no better, with Crediton farmer, Malcolm Huxtable inviting Dr. Brian May to watch, as his cattle were condemned - [link] as reactors.

May's reaction was to once again push for cattle to vaccinated. That is the answer, he said, with all the confidence of the totally uninformed. And this posting, after his last foray into vaccination, explains why it won't work. Ever. [link]

And he forgets of course, the WHO's (World Health Organisation) rationing of BCG base vaccines to try and cover a 30 percent shortfall in supply. - [link]

He also chooses to ignore  the continuing upspill of badger TB into many mammals other than tested cattle, including domestic pets, their owners and vets. Or is Dr. May suggesting we vaccinate every mammal which may cross the path of a badger riddled with a Grade 3 zoonotic pathogen? And boost it annually, of course.

Come to think of it, what on earth are we doing even entertaining such obscure idealists?
The only people who should be dealing with the eradication of zoonotic Tuberculosis - where ever it is found - are Public Health, Defra and owners of animals which by International Statute have to be tested in an approved zTB eradication programme.

The opinions of anyone else, no matter how famous, are distractions. Fudge.