22 – Mar- 2011
The Welsh Assembly Government will debate tomorrow (Wednesday March 23) whether to carry out its plan to kill badgers as new figures show big reductions in cattle TB.
The area designated for the killing is in Dyfed, where the cattle toll has fallen by 45 percent over the last two years without any culling policy. This is since Health Check Wales was introduced which ensured that all animals were tested, some of which would not otherwise have been checked for another four years.
In Great Britain as a whole the fall in cattle deaths last year was 10 percent and 18 percent over the last two years, but the demands for badgers to be killed continue.
The figures for herds found to contain infected cattle show, over the two years, a net reduction in breakdowns of 309, or six percent. In the same period the number of herds tested went up from 53,822 in 2008 to 60,523 last year. This increase of 12 percent. revealed 101 more cases.
David Williams, chairman of the Badger Trust, said: “If more are tested more will be found – no bad thing in the long run. The improvements are thanks to more regular testing and movement restrictions – all without killing badgers. In reality the beef and dairy industries should be congratulated on the success they have achieved. On this evidence their efforts and sacrifices are starting to pay off, as predicted by the Independent Scientific Group which oversaw Defra’s Randomised Badger Culling Trial. Movement restrictions should not be seen as a blight but as essential to consolidate recent gains. Any idea that they would be unnecessary if all the badgers were killed is preposterous”.
Bovine TB can lurk undetected for years often due to “anergic” cattle that do not react to the current Single Intradermal Comparative Cervical Test (SICCT). These can be cows which have just given birth. Also, pregnancy distorts the immune response on which the SICCT test depends and heifers could carry bTB until their first pregnancy activates the disease [1]. Some become permanently anergic – time bombs of bTB in fact. These early and late bTB cases are the usual cause of flareups in herds thought to be clear of the disease.
The gamma interferon test (IFN) [2] can be used in infected herds to improve the detection of tuberculous cattle and so speed up the elimination of infection from herds.
[1] Francis, J. (1947) Bovine Tuberculosis. London: Staple Press.
[2] http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=9585