[cmonstanley]

Other Causes of Bovine TB Spread
You could be forgiven for thinking that Bovine TB wasn’t correctly named; if you were to read an article from the NFU or Defra you would probably think that the disease was actually ‘Badger’ TB, an infection originating from, spread and hosted by our native wildlife.

The truth is Bovine TB is a disease of cattle, the bacteria evolved to infect cattle and is chiefly spread between cattle. Badgers became involved in this whole debate as they, like many other warm-bodied mammals, are a vector (an animal which is able to ‘carry’ the disease) for bTB.

When a previously uininfected herd suddenly develops the infection, it is often incorrectly assumed that it must have been passed on via the wildlife reservoir; but is that really the case?

Yesterday this artcile was published, stating that bTB had spread to the border of Cumbria and Lancashire most likely due to “bought-in infection from high-risk countries”.

Earlier this week, this article, told the story of a vet being struck-off for not properly conducting TB tests on cattle.

The Farmers Weekly have reported on breaches in health and safety concerning Bovine TB samples.

There are countless stories about rogue farmers illegally swapping ear tags; Vets Online, Westmorland, Farmers Weekly, Bovinetb, etc.

And various others concerning other fraudulent activities concerning cattle; Farmers Weekly, Darlington, ThisisGloucestershire, Farmers Guardian…

These are just a few of countless articles available online and until these issues have been thoroughly delt with a cull on wildlife should not go ahead.

well well it has nothing to do with badgers they were infected.so really it should be a cull of irresponsible farmers.