Brixham farmer 'targeted by campaigners'

“It's a great pity that very few people really have any idea what they are talking about when it comes to vaccinating any mammal with the 90 year old, now failing, BCG vaccine which is now only really suitable for very young children.

A vaccine is just that, a vaccine that you hope will stop you catching a disease. . It is not a cure.

So; even IF we had an effective, appliable for ALL badgers (and cubs underground), It would still take 6 or 7 years to work through. . But we don't!!

If it had been at all practicable to vaccinate either cattle or badgers, it would have been done a long time ago.

It's not practical in badgers in the wild for very obvious logistical reasons. . And all animals should be tested FIRST any way.(first rule of vaccination).

2nd rule. Don't ever vaccinate any animal if there is the slightest doubt the animal has the infection already.

Vaccinating cattle with an only 60% effective attenuated vaccine (live) would virtually destroy our market in a world, where we are the ONLY developed country still with this problem.

The ONLY way to defeat M.bovis until we have a NEW, fully appliable vaccine for animals in the wild, (as we did before they were so foolishly protected) is to control and cull any species where the disease is self-maintaining. . That day is NOWHERE on the horizon.

There WILL have to be a cull of badgers. . It is not an option to just let M.bovis go on increasing exponentially in the wild infecting all other mammals.

http://tinyurl.com/66l9ud9 (open in a new window)”

“It's a great pity that very few people really have any idea what they are talking about when it comes to vaccinating any mammal with the 90 year old, now failing, BCG vaccine which is now only really suitable for very young children.

A vaccine is just that, a vaccine that you hope will stop you catching a disease. . It is not a cure.

So; even IF we had an effective, appliable for ALL badgers (and cubs underground), It would still take 6 or 7 years to work through. . But we don't!!

If it had been at all practicable to vaccinate either cattle or badgers, it would have been done a long time ago.

It's not practical in badgers in the wild for very obvious logistical reasons. . And all animals should be tested FIRST any way.(first rule of vaccination).

2nd rule. Don't ever vaccinate any animal if there is the slightest doubt the animal has the infection already.

Vaccinating cattle with an only 60% effective attenuated vaccine (live) would virtually destroy our market in a world, where we are the ONLY developed country still with this problem.

The ONLY way to defeat M.bovis until we have a NEW, fully appliable vaccine for animals in the wild, (as we did before they were so foolishly protected) is to control and cull any species where the disease is self-maintaining. . That day is NOWHERE on the horizon.

There WILL have to be a cull of badgers. . It is not an option to just let M.bovis go on increasing exponentially in the wild infecting all other mammals.

http://tinyurl.com/66l9ud9 (open in a new window)”

“Independent scientific studies have shown that culling would be of little help in reducing bovine TB, and even suggest that it could make things worse in some areas. To hear the facts, press play on the video below.

If you want the government to make the sensible choice. Sign the Petition

http://tinyurl.com/9ndb3ty

http://tinyurl.com/9lmonj3”

“TB in all its species and strains is coming ever closer. . XDR and MDR strains are known to be far more infectious and more easily caught than any regular strains once they are in circulation.

There will be a cull. . To not prevent further expansion of M.bovis in the wild now would be dereliction of the highest order.

http://tinyurl.com/cubqlvm (open in a new window)”

“Oh Hum the circle begins again, the only thing that has changed is that Chelstonlass is on -86 now, come on badger killers see if you can get it to -100, you might get that warm glow of achievement.


"Dear Secretary of State,
FINAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC GROUP ON
CATTLE TB
I have pleasure in enclosing the final Report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle
TB (ISG). After nearly a decade's work, I believe that the ISG has fulfilled its original
objective and can now provide you with a comprehensive picture of TB epidemiology
in cattle and badgers. Further research will doubtless improve the knowledge base, but
I believe that the work described in this Report will allow you to develop future policies
based on sound science.
The ISG's work – most of which has already been published in peer-reviewed scientific
journals – has reached two key conclusions. First, while badgers are clearly a source of
cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others' data indicates that badger culling can
make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under
consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better. Second, weaknesses in
cattle testing regimes mean that cattle themselves contribute significantly to the persistence
and spread of disease in all areas where TB occurs, and in some parts of Britain are likely
to be the main source of infection. Scientific findings indicate that the rising incidence of
disease can be reversed, and geographical spread contained, by the rigid application of
cattle-based control measures alone.
Our Report provides advice on the need for Defra to develop disease control strategies, based
on scientific findings. Implementation of such strategies will require Defra to institute more
effective operational structures, and the farming and veterinary communities to accept the
scientific findings. If this can be achieved, the ISG is confident that the measures outlined
in this Report will greatly improve TB control in Britain.
The ISG remains grateful to you and your colleagues for your continued support and
encouragement to see our work brought to a successful conclusion."”

“These are the badger facts from Dr John Gallagher, a veterinary pathologist since 1972, that those who just want farmers' cattle to continue to be prematurely slaughtered, and badgers to just continue to suffer and go on infecting all other mammals, just can't handle.

THE NATURE OF TB IN BADGERS

1.Tuberculosis has a different manifestation in most species . In the badger it is fundamentally different from TB in cattle essentially due to the lack of development of a hypersensitivity response which is a prime feature of infection in cattle. Thus small numbers of organisms infecting cattle produce a vigorous cellular response which results in extensive cell death and the development of large cold abscesses in the affected tissues usually the lung and respiratory lymph nodes . This is in fact the host immune reaction to TB. Whilst causing disease and disruption to the affected organs the changes inside these abscesses strongly inhibit the TB bacteria and kill many of them.

The badger does not show such a vigorous destructive reaction but rather a slowly progressive proliferative reaction which eventually results in cell death as numbers of bacteria increase markedly. TB lesions are thus relatively much smaller but contain relatively vastly more bacteria than those of cattle. TB bacteria do not produce toxins but rather cause lesions as a result of their highly antigenic cell walls to which different hosts may respond with greater or lesser aggression.

PROGRESSION OF INFECTION

2. Once a badger develops disease all the members of that social group are likely to become infected due to the confined living space in their underground tunnel systems, their highly gregarious nature and constant mutual grooming. But that seed of infection (the primary focus ) will usually only progress to produce disease and eventually death in a minority of cases. Latency is a feature of TB in many species and this is so in badgers and cattle. The bulk of infections in badgers, usually 70% or more will become latent or dormant. A small number of badgers may resolve the infection completely and self cure. But the latent infections remain fully viable and may breakdown under stress which may be of nutritional origin, intercurrent disease, senile deterioration or social disturbance and disruption. Some badgers may develop fulminating disease (Gallagher et al 1998).

Badgers with terminal generalised tuberculosis can excrete vast numbers of bacteria particularly when the kidneys are infected. Counts of several million bacteria in a full urination have been recorded (Gallagher and Clifton-Hadley, 2000).

When infection is acquired by a bite wound from the contaminated mouth of another badger, the bacteria are Inoculated either deeply subcutaneously or intramuscularly and rapid generalisation of infection usually occurs, causing progression to severe and often fatal tuberculosis which may develop in a matter of several months (Gallagher and Nelson, 1979). Respiratory origin infections have a longer duration and cases in an endemically infected population (Woodchester) have been monitored showing intermittent excretion of infection for a year, with the longest recorded case excreting for almost three years before death.

The above ground mortality due to TB is estimated as about 2% of the population per annum. Thus in the South West alone with its now extensive endemically infected areas the annual deaths due to TB will be of the order of at least 1000 to 2000.

Tuberculosis has an unfettered progress in the badger population and the cycle of infection and disease in the badger has long been known to be self sustaining (Zuckerman 1980). Over time the badger has become well adapted as a
primary reservoir host of bovine TB infection.

THERE WILL BE A CULL.”

“Some stare,some look an stare,some look beyond it an See.”

“only thing to add is nothin to add in me chair”

“only thing to add is nothin to add in me chair”

“A new term and the Government looks set to walk straight into a public relations disaster. In a bid to 'manage' the spread of bovine TB, Defra will commence a badger cull starting in two areas of the South West – West Somerset/Taunton Deane and in the Forest of Dean/Tewkesbury. It is not just the pictures of indiscriminate shooting and maiming of an icon of the British countryside which will be so damaging for the Government; it is the fact that the cull is based on flawed science. This is an ill-conceived policy.
Surveying of sets in the cull area is being carried out so they can be protected against marksmen.”