Study Claims That "Virtual Extermination" Of Badgers In Ireland Has Done Zip To Stop Bovine TB - BBC

[hatrack]

EDIT

But the two conservation groups concentrate on what they regard as flaws in the project - and in the Irish Republic's current control methods. Their report says with 6,000 badger snares in operation every night in the Republic, the incidence of TB in cattle remains a major problem.

It claims the density of badgers in Ireland is now only 10% of that in equivalent habitats in South West England; and yet, in 2006, Ireland slaughtered 9% more cattle with bovine TB than Great Britain - even though the Irish national herd is only 56% the size of Britain's. "If you've eradicated virtually all your badgers and you've still got twice the level of bovine TB in your national herd than you have in Britain, where we're not slaughtering our badgers, then clearly Ireland has got it wrong," Trevor Lawson told the BBC News website.

The groups believe their assessment supports the view that bovine TB in Ireland is largely spread by the movement of c attle. They say the disease rocketed in Ireland when pre-movement TB testing for cattle was abandoned in 1996. It quickly reached the highest level ever recorded in 1999, with more than 45,000 positive tests. Badger culling continued throughout that period, their report states.

Irish lesson

The UK NFU accused the badger groups of twisting the available data to support their case. The Union's Anthony Gibson argued that the Republic's policy of snaring badgers within a 2km radius of infected farms - where wildlife transmission was the suspected cause of the outbreak - had been an outstanding success.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6653691.stm

[hedgehog]

1. Maybe they should test all the cattle then have a cattle cull?

are farms with animals positive for TB quarantined for any period?

[Warpy]

2. It's in the soil along with human TB

and the bugs are very difficult to eradicate, which is why antibiotics need to be taken for so long. Cattle are routinely tested and sick animals isolated and treated until they're no longer contagious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis#Treatment

On edit: they need to rebuild the badger population. How else will they be able to recognize visiting Freepers?