Condolences to the farmers so badly affected by the new outbreak of bovine TB in Scotland.
Scotland has, until now, been substantially free of the disease, so this is a shock in more ways than one. This article in the Farmers Guardian gives more details.
Sixty cattle slaughtered after bovine TB outbreak in Scotland
FARMERS GUARDIAN
SIXTY cattle from a fully closed dairy herd have been compulsory slaughtered following one of the worst outbreaks of bovine TB in Scotland for several years …
It is very significant that in this case it’s impossible to argue that badgers or other wild animals can be to blame for the outbreak, and from the point of view of those arguing, as we are, that the proposed British badger cull is tragically misguided, this provides concrete evidence that TB is still being spread in ways other than the much vaunted ‘Wildlife Reservoir of Infection”. And that even if every badger in these islands were to be killed, cows would still be getting sick.
This sentence at the end of the Farmers Guardian report says it all.
“The absence of repeated reinfections within single herds, or clusters of disease caused by the same strain of TB, are indicators that a wildlife reservoir is not driving infection.”
Mr David Cameron, Mr Peter Kendall, Ms Caroline Spelman, and Mr Jim Paice, please take note, and ask yourselves if you can still sleep peacefully in your beds. Your ‘pilot’ cull of badgers must be shelved.
Brian
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