The Badger Cull in Wales has been delayed due to an fresh legal appeal later this month (June 2010) I fell this is a good thing as i would like to hear what other measures have been tried prior to allow a mass cull.
What i find strange is that Pigeons and rabbits cause many thousands of pounds worth of damage to land and the loss in crops and therfore income to the farmers, it has to be proved that other measures have been tried prior to allow vermin control with guns is allowed, which is a very effective way of controlling this problem.
With this in mind i would like to know how many cattle farmers have looked at there Bio-Security ie using high level disinfectants which have been designed to controll Bovine TB, Foot and Mouth and Bird Flu to name a few and these products are DEFRA Approved.
The TB virus is spread via urine and saliva from the infected animal so using an approved long lasting product such as Agrigene will certainly help against the spread of this awfull disease.
All the farmers need to do is to self mix the disinfectant into a sprayer and spray over feeders and around cattle sheds to kill of the virus.
Agrigene is a long lasting product even when mixed and will remain active upto 6 months outside (subject to weather conditions) and can be used as boot and vehicle dips if ramers are worried about outside people coming in to there farms.
I wonder how many cattle farmers have been informed about this alternative method?? none i feel.
Vermin control is an important part of farming and the countryside but am still not convinced about a mass cull of Badgers.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment.
Phil
Field and Moor
Farmers weekly Blog
In response to Phil's post of 11th June.
ReplyDeleteThe last government more or less gave up on trying to control bovine TB. The limited "krebs" cull was sabotaged by well meaning groups (i.e. infected badgers were taken from traps and dropped outside the cull zone) and resulted in an incorrect conclusion from the Independant Scientific Report group. Despite this, follow up studies in the cull zone and in the immediate surrounding area have shown a much reduced infection rate in cattle even after many years. The only rapid solution is a mass cull of badgers in high TB incidence areas followed by a repopulation with vaccinated badgers from TB free areas. This solution is backed by 90% of the vets and scientists dealing with this disease but, pressure groups prefer to believe the small minority who have other ideas.
The suggestion of spraying everywhere with disinfectant is actually done as far as is possible. However, we are not talking about a virus that is easy to kill. The TB mycobacterium is a rather primitive and ancient organism and has survived for millennia because it is tough to kill.