95% of vets support badger culling

IT really is annoying that people like Hazel Wood attack Mr LiddelGrainger for defending the badger cull with figures that are not true.

Science has not shown that cattle are the biggest cause of bTB spread.

How does she explain how bTB is turning up in herds that have never had the disease before, when the farmer never buys in any cattle.

It is unfair to blame the skin test, the Royal Veterinary College report 1896 suggests that nearly one million cows had bTB. By testing and slaughtering infected cattle and taking out the local badger sett, this figure was reduced to only 400 cattle in 1979. It increased to 36,000 when badgers became infected.

She blames the spread on “Lack of risk based trading practices, inadequate on-farm bio security and ineffective slurry control.”

I would point out that before any cattle leave my farm, including going to the Cornwall Show, they have to be Tb tested. Tb can live in slurry for six months so it is pretty obvious that it must be spread on nongrazing pastures. Putting troughs on legs that badgers cannot reach may help but you have to consider that the infected animal has piddled and drooled all the way across the pasture to get there.

When retired vet Mr Bosleman became chairman of the South Devon cattle society four years ago, he said: “When I was training to be a vet I was told that they were 10 years away from getting a cattle vaccine. Now that I am retired we are told that they are 10 years away still.”

Indeed, Hazel, they soon got a Covid vaccine but until there is a cattle vaccine the cull must continue. In 1979, 14.36% of badgers had Tb, now the latest samples show that 45% have Tb. Even if a cattle vaccine is developed, the badger in time will be wiped out like myxomatosis did for rabbits.

The only solution now is to put some healthy badgers in sanctuaries, kill the rest, then release the healthy ones. The cull has seen cattle Tb reduced by 51%. Humans have taken over the earth so have to control nature. The enormous increase in badgers has seen hedgehogs wiped out in many areas, including this area. I would point out that 95% of vets support the cull.Roger Clemens

Wadebridge, Cornwall