David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mammals 19 - Badgers
BADGER Meles meles
- A boar Badger Meles meles
is seen emerging from his sett in complete
darkness during a cold night in early March. At the time of writing
(October 2018) the cruel, pointless and inept culling of these (supposedly)
protected mammals to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is being
conducted at great public expense (i.e. paid for by tax-payers!) and without
due consideration of the prevention of those anthropogenic methods of
transmission associated with sub-standard biosecurity that are undoubtedly
to blame. It ought to be stopped. The cull is nothing more than a callous,
politically motivated exercise in appeasement actioned by the employment
of a poorly researched knee-jerk response and it therefore provides a convenient
diversion from the improvements in animal husbandry and biosecurity measures
(including vaccination) that might genuinely help to control the spread by
contagion of the causative organism Mycobacterium
bovis and as a
consequence it will exacerbate the spread of the disease rather than
contain it. M. bovis is a slow-growing aerobic
bacterium than can be transmitted to other mammals including humans. Sadly there is more to be gained for
those pursuing their own political careers by dismissing or ignoring the informed research-based opinions of
career scientists (i.e. experts who actually understand
microbiology or epidemiology and know what they are talking about) than by
taking their advice – so there are parallels with the blinkered political
response to the issue of climate change associated with global warming and
the wilful dumbing-down of the scientific facts in certain quarters. Of course if the temperatures and
humidity do continue to rise then there will be a greater likelihood of additional
detrimental organisms causing nasty diseases in other forms of livestock
too. Future generations may find
themselves looking back at this period of history (if they still teach it
by then!) with abject horror and the consequential denigration of the
reputations of those believed to have been responsible will be well
deserved! The observations below
(with slight modifications) were made in 2007 and incorporated in a letter
sent to politicians and the broadsheet newspapers (it was published by The Independent). The status quo persists! This is not a
partisan matter as both of the major political parties have been in power
during the intervening period and the management of this serious issue (for
those unfortunate farmers whose livelihoods have been seriously affected and
the general public alike) remains to be dealt with effectively. Long-term
cross-party co-operation and joined-up thinking are required!
- The quality of the 'scientific'
research carried out on behalf of those supporting badger culling has been
unconvincing to say the least
- Cruelty to the individual animals
whichever method of culling is employed
- The possibility of leaving orphaned
cubs which would then starve to death
- The removal of territory-holding
dominant animals will simply make way for genetically inferior individuals
that would have otherwise needed to fight for that territory
- Territorial extension will occur as
a thinned out population fills any gaps, therefore increasing the
potential range of bTB by infected badgers
- If left undisturbed, badgers will
automatically self-limit their populations according to available
territory, food supply, disease, etc.
- Badgers already have to cope with a
high level of human-inflicted death other than deliberate
population control on farms, particularly as a consequence of road kills
(many more are killed on the roads than will have been culled) , toxicity
in the food chain (including damage to those invertebrates such as
dung-beetles which inhabit cow-pats by agricultural treatments),
consumption of rubbish, electrocution on railways (in third rail areas),
etc. and to a lesser degree illegal hunting with dogs
- The apparent dismissal of humans,
cattle, agricultural slurry, agricultural markets, rivers and vehicles as
potential vectors (remember the 'foot and mouth' debacle)
- Cattle herd closely together and
may be kept indoors at high density - therefore the likelihood of aerosol
contamination from cow to cow must be much greater than any risk of badger
to cow transmission. Individual cows should be screened for bTB and carrier animals destroyed and disposed of by
incineration on site
- Badgers live in clearly defined
setts and normally follow well-trodden pathways leading to their foraging
areas that could be fenced. They also use demarcated latrine areas
- An apparent reluctance to immunize
the cattle themselves - or indeed the badgers - when this policy has long
been acceptable for the control of TB in humans
- There is absolutely no
justification for killing any badgers in areas unaffected by Bovine
TB although sensible buffer-zones may be required
- Until the movement of cattle and
other farm animals from affected areas has been completely restricted,
any other approach to bTB control will be
undermined
- Would it not be most sensible to
alter the types of livestock reared on the land where bovine TB is
endemic? Retention of cattle simply extends the duration of the disease
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