Badgers and TB are a source of intense debate
THE controversy regarding Badgers and TB in cows and cattle has rumbled on for years and debate is likely to continue for some time to come.
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a highly infectious disease that affects mainly the lungs and airways of cows and cattle. The disease is caused by a species of bacterium. An animal with the disease releases bacteria into the air through coughing and sneezing thereby spreading the disease to uninfected animals. It follows that animal density is a major factor in the transmission of the disease so the fact that cows and cattle are farmed in large numbers in close contact helps the disease to spread rapidly.
Bovine TB bacteria in the air can infect wildlife and people but the risk of they further spreading the disease is low; the main exception in Ireland is the Badger where the risk of spill-back from these spill-over hosts is high. Badgers pick up the disease from cattle and since they are sociable animals that live in small groups they spread it to others in their clan and they can go on to spread it back to uninfected cows and cattle.
A farmer with a disease-free herd is understandably angry when his or her animals get infected by a diseased Badger foraging at night in the heretofore disease-free farm. The immediate reaction is to usually a call to cull the Badgers that are spreading the disease.
While Badgers are protected animals under the Wildlife Acts 1976 to 2012, it is believed that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has culled over 100,000 Badgers to date to try to control the spread of bovine TB. The Irish Wildlife Trust reports that in 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, 5,614 Badgers were trapped and shot. In addition to shooting, the Department has an active programme to conserve the animals via vaccination.
The long-term goal is to eradicate bovine TB from Ireland. Some other countries have successfully got rid of the disease, so eradication is achievable. Annual flareups aside, progress is being made and an ongoing decline in bovine tuberculosis in Ireland is slowly being achieved. However, additional measures are needed if the rate of decline is to be maintained or accelerated. Badgers are just one brick in the wall of issues that need to be addressed in the complex quest to rid Ireland of a nasty and expensive disease.