Down on the Farm
Reproduced from Private Eye 11th August 2000
ALTHOUGH
the sight of farming lobby hounds in full cry after the wrong fox
often provides good entertainment, the current hysteria over TB
and badgers is not a laughing matter. With TB in cattle becoming an epidemic that
costs the ministry of agriculture (MAFF) more than £30m a year
and farmers much more, there are urgent calls for action from
nearly everyone. The latest pair to weigh in have been National
Farmers’ Union (NFU) chief Ben Gill, and leading dairy
auctioneer Tom Brooksbank with a notably ignorant diatribe. The
trouble is, no one has anything to suggest other than gassing
badgers. And that has almost nothing to recommend it. The ineradicable belief that cattle get TB from
badgers, and that reducing badger numbers will reduce outbreaks of
TB in cattle, began almost by accident and has been perpetuated by
MAFF and the industry in the finest scapegoat tradition. Apart
from the fact that some badgers carry TB - along with rats, foxes,
deer and other mammals, all of which seem to have escaped notice -
there is little direct evidence to implicate them. Hence the Krebs
report and the current trial culls to clarify the badger’s role
- if any. TB is a respiratory infection; and unless the
two species spend the quiet hours of the night kissing each other,
badgers cannot be the main source of infection. Nor does the rapid
spread of TB to new areas makes any sense - cattle get on
lorries and move around the country; badgers, hardly ever.
As MAFF has belatedly recognised with its husbandry
panel, there is more to disease than infection. Even in “hotspots”
where many farms find TB reactors in every test, some never do.
There has been no research into this at all, but the suspicion
exists that many cattle, especially dairy herds, which have a
narrow genetic base, unnatural diets and metabolic stress, and are
often awash with drugs which damage the immune response, are easy
targets for TB and other bugs.For a source of infection one need look no
further than the national herd itself. Even at its lowest level TB
in cattle was still endemic, and the long test interval combined
with the notorious inaccuracy of the test, allows many cattle to
avoid detection. The simplest immediate measure MAFF could take is
to test more often. None of this interests the NFU or the vet groups
such as the BCVA, who with MAFF connivance tried to use the TB
Forum - an informal discussion group formed to consider other
measures - to force a vote in favour of a widespread badger cull.
After all, they already know whodunnit, even if the scientists don’t.
Any other solutions could mean troublesome interference with
farming methods, and that really would be unacceptable. Reproduced from Private Eye 11th August
2000
| Michael Clark
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This is a superb book about badgers by Michael
Clark. His immense knowledge of badgers really shines through. Click here to buy:
2017 edition
or
2010 edition
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