Bovine TB And Badgers
18 years ago
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Posted
14th July, 2006 00h00
Commenting today (Friday) on this week's announcement that the Government had further delayed a decision on a badger cull BVA President Dr Freda Scott-Park expressed her disappointment while conceding that it was vital that any decision reached was based on as sound a scientific and practical foundation as possible.
“BVA members in affected areas will, on behalf of their clients, be understandably disappointed by the postponement of a decision on this important disease” she said, “but we do recognise the need to get this right and we certainly support the need for further analysis of culling methods. The significant reduction in new cases of bTB in cattle recorded over the past six months has clearly coloured Ministers’ thinking but while encouraging the figures should not” she stressed “be allowed to detract from the fact that bTB levels remain unacceptably high. Of course the reasons for the decline need to be identified but meanwhile a commitment to tackling the disease at all levels should remain the priority.
“The BVA would”, Dr Scott-Park confirmed, willingly continue to work closely with Defra and other interested groups in an endeavour to achieve a shared understanding of the facts but there was little doubt that many vets’, as well as farmers’ patience was wearing thin. Those of us at the sharp end, in terms of advising on or introducing improved biosecurity and husbandry on farm must take hope from Ministers’ confirmation that they are not ruling anything in or out at this stage, that their trials of potential badger culling methods are to continue and that they will continue to consider the organisation and practicability of a potential cull of diseased badgers.
“Our common aim, as stated many times before, must be healthy badgers and healthy cattle and I would commend to Ministers the application of the veterinary profession’s first principles of disease control, namely that in a situation where the control of an animal-based disease is critical, yet absolute science is absent, wherever the disease is identified it should be removed to reduce the possibility of further infection. The eradication of Rinderpest at the turn of the 1900s is but one example of the success of the application of such principles, despite the lack of a pre-emptive diagnostic test or a clear understanding of the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the disease!”
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