October 2009 Archives

A sad week for us this week. As I wrote in June, our 60day TB test, threw up 3 inconclusives on standard interpretation, which Defra ratcheted up to 'reactor' status on severe.

All these young cows had calved that week and all had really good calves, two bulls and a heifer. But of course our Minister was not going to waste taxpayer's money slaughtering these extremely 'dangerous contacts' as well - just as I was not going to try and hang them onto another cow, or bucket feed them.

So on welfare grounds they stayed with mum until they were ready to wean. And mum had flukicide and wormer in August, as we didn't want these three to contaminate clean grassland for future grazing.

The end of the road came this week when the drug withdrawal period was up, so they could go into the food chain and offset Defra's costs with a less than transparent 'salvage' income. And three cracking young suckler cows were loaded up and shot. 

As expected, they had no visible lesions (NVL) but the test, doing what it says on the tin, had shown they'd had 'exposure' to the bacteria that causes TB. In the four months since the last test, or five months if I include the latency period of 30-50 days before it, they had not developed lesions, and it is quite likely that they never would.

They did not get the chance. They join almost 21,000 other casualties (up until June) of this crazy non-policy that passes for Defra's 'eradication' of bovine tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, the EU - or rather UK, German and Dutch taxpayers - has coughed up 10million euros to help our vets test more cattle and our abattoirs to slaughter them.

Defra advertised a diversification opportunity last week. At the moment the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 prohibits any act of veterinary surgery, which includes the vaccination of badgers by injection, from being carried out by non-veterinary surgeons.

And Defra, having drawn in more than 4000 extra herds onto annual testing, which will involve preMT as well, are keen to share this work - and the largesse - among as many competent lay persons as possible.

So, if anyone fancies a bit of moonlighting, located in hotspot areas of the highest TB infection, trapping, vaccinating, marking and releasing endemically infected badgers, the link to a consultation paper is http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/tb-badger/index.htm on the Defra website.

Entries close on the 10^th January 2010, which is just about the time we shall be testing the herd again.

At last week's launch of the TB Eradication Group's (TBEG) recommendations to government, the tone for the discussions was set by beef farmer George Richardson, whose cattle have been under TB restriction, on and off, for well over a decade. His opening shot pointed out that the only way to deal with bTB was to deal with the maintenance reservoir of infection in badgers. Everything else was peripheral to this.

Unfortunately it is the 'everything else' which is the only remit TBEG can work with. So using a bright red crayon, they have filled in all the gaps west of a line from Mr. Richardson's patch in North Staffordshire and moving south towards the Dorset coast, put a further 4000 farms on to annual or two year testing. A 10km buffer zone, (on TBEG's map, if not on the resident badgers') protects areas east of this. How long will this line hold I wonder?

I don't have a problem with more regular testing of cattle - but I have a very big problem with not tackling the source of the problems my cattle are flagging up. I watched Hilary Benn at his last appearance before the EFRA committee.

His jubilation was tangible when by changing one  word in the title of a group whose conclusions he can ignore anyway, he broke the impasse over industry 'co-operation' with his Cost and Responsibility Sharing - and levies.

The man was positively gleeful. But he had not changed tack at all. 'Eradication' meant different things to him, than it did to the industry representatives who now sit around his table discussing cattle measures, more cattle measures and only cattle measures.

There will be no removal of TB super-excreter and grossly infected badgers - at least until after this government has been removed. And even then, it appears that Defra's civil servants are still opposing any method of badger control which they quaintly describe as 'not validated'.

I remember a similar attitude in 2001, and the flat refusal of Fred Brown's offer to use his PCR 'Smart Cycler' while Defra faithfully followed a mathematical model and culled 11 million animals, chasing FMD around the country.

Unfortunately, any new administration next May, still has to get around the word 'targeted' when paired with 'badger cull'.

Both Conservative and the Lib-Dems have this pre-condition within their commitments, notably made while out of office.

So how do you 'target' a cull, if such stunning technology as PCR or the years of experience in identifying unhealthy sets offered by the now redundant Wildlife Unit operatives, is met with a brick wall of intransigence?

One idea which may have legs, is a makeover of the 'Clean Ring' strategy which worked so well in the past.

 A wealth of information is held by local Animal Health Offices on where wildlife based TB problems are. They are able to examine widespread evidence provided by cattle breakdowns over large areas. It's not rocket science. If cattle are clear on regular testing, it's a pretty good indication that the badgers on that farm are healthy too, and should be left strictly alone.

But on farms like ours, and that of our neighbours who have just lost eleven animals to Defra's killing machine, there is a problem. And that problem is not going to be solved by testing more cattle, killing more cattle, or by offering 'unvalidated' bio-security advice which owes more to model farmyards and plastic cattle than a working environment covering several hundred acres.

With easier access to finishing units, long distance hops and extended testing periods, TBEG has gone out on limb to make TB easier for farmers to live with. Or put another way, for my cattle to die from.

Those three severe interpretation 'reactors' are booked to go next week, now that their calves stand a reasonable chance of survival and the cows themselves are clear of a withdrawal period for a fluke and worm drench. And then we test again. For the fourth time this year.