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.
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