A leopard changes his spots?

[kfpben]

A pretty breathtaking statement from the head of Natural England, formerly vehemently against a badger cull.

Tony Juniper – The badger cull and Natural England

The Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper on Natural England's role in relation to bovine tuberculosis (bTB) policy, conservation and wildlife licensing.

naturalengland.blog.gov.uk

Good to see evidence winning out over emotion.

 

[Hampton]

I'm quite sceptical about this statement (once bitten and all that)
Tony Juniper has said nothing about the cull for months, Boris (and his girlfriend) interfere in the Derbyshire cull (disgraceful considering all the hard work etc that would have gone into setting it up) and suddenly Juniper releases a statement saying how good the culls are like he's every livestock farmers best friend!
Political? I think so
Still, have to be happy that he came to the right decision in the end!

 

[Agrivator]

Part of his statement reads:

''We have also commissioned the British Trust for Ornithology to investigate any evidence suggesting that culling operations may be indirectly affecting vulnerable ground-nesting birds''.

Did he mean that the cull operations were '' benefiting vulnerable ground-nesting birds'' rather than ''affecting vulnerable ground-nesting birds''?

 

[Hampton]

Part of his statement reads:

''We have also commissioned the British Trust for Ornithology to investigate any evidence suggesting that culling operations may be indirectly affecting vulnerable ground-nesting birds''.

Did he mean that the cull operations were '' benefiting vulnerable ground-nesting birds'' rather than ''affecting vulnerable ground-nesting birds''?

I think he meant what he said, which is suitably ambiguous!

 

[matthew]

A pretty breathtaking statement from the head of Natural England, formerly vehemently against a badger cull.

Tony Juniper – The badger cull and Natural England

The Chair of Natural England, Tony Juniper on Natural England's role in relation to bovine tuberculosis (bTB) policy, conservation and wildlife licensing.

naturalengland.blog.gov.uk

Good to see evidence winning out over emotion.

Have you read his final swipe? Leopards and spots certainly do spring to mind.

 

[kfpben]

Have you read his final swipe? Leopards and spots certainly do spring to mind.

I have read the final paragraph. I think he’s right. A cattle vaccination is surely the only way to properly knock TB on the head. Badger vaccination is just pissing in the wind.

I’m just glad that someone who I believed (perhaps unfairly?) to be a borderline saboteur seems to have opened his mind to the issues involved, including a badger cull where necessary.

 

[chaffcutter]

All the comments are full of spite and distortions of the truth as usual, saying that tb has increased in the cull areas. Where did that statistic come from?

 

[Exfarmer]

I have read the final paragraph. I think he’s right. A cattle vaccination is surely the only way to properly knock TB on the head. Badger vaccination is just pissing in the wind.

I’m just glad that someone who I believed (perhaps unfairly?) to be a borderline saboteur seems to have opened his mind to the issues involved, including a badger cull where necessary.

Cattle vaccine nation? Have you not read the evidence! As much waste of space as Badger vaccination!

 

[matthew]

Cattle vaccine nation? Have you not read the evidence! As much waste of space as Badger vaccination!

I’m so glad you said that ^^^^

BCG is the only vaccine and it hasn’t worked on people.

BCG vaccination - cattle

And now to cattle BCG vaccines: heavily promoted by guitarist, pop idol and astrophysicist Dr. Brian May as 'only months away' with no obv...

bovinetb.blogspot.com

 

[ollie989898]

If farmers are prepared to live with the TB risk to themselves then fudge bovine TB. Pasturise the milk and continue carcass inspections. Whats the point in spending millions testing for TB in cattle? Its a complete waste of money and as far as I can see provides no public health benefit. Ban the sale of raw milk and forget it.

We dont even bother to vaccinate kids for TB now and it wil be interesting to see how my TB skin test looks next year given that I was vaccinated (and probably will be again) and have been around cattle and drinking raw milk on and off for years.

 

[Exfarmer]

If farmers are prepared to live with the TB risk to themselves then fudge bovine TB. Pasturise the milk and continue carcass inspections. Whats the point in spending millions testing for TB in cattle? Its a complete waste of money and as far as I can see provides no public health benefit. Ban the sale of raw milk and forget it.

We dont even bother to vaccinate kids for TB now and it wil be interesting to see how my TB skin test looks next year given that I was vaccinated (and probably will be again) and have been around cattle and drinking raw milk on and off for years.

FFS I despair!!!

 

[Jackov Altraids]

All the comments are full of spite and distortions of the truth as usual, saying that tb has increased in the cull areas. Where did that statistic come from?

Firstly, I must say I don't know, but,

On the radio, the head of the Badger Trust said ONE area had an increase incidence of 113%. Which is obviously an increase of 13% which doesn't sound quite so significant.
They were rather vague about what had increased.
I think that in cull areas, after a few years and the incidence of TB is reducing, they are using a different test on cattle which will not give any false negatives but does give more false positives. This could mean that the number of cattle culled increases but doesn't mean the incidence of TB is increasing.

 

[sidjon]

Firstly, I must say I don't know, but,

On the radio, the head of the Badger Trust said ONE area had an increase incidence of 113%. Which is obviously an increase of 13% which doesn't sound quite so significant.
They were rather vague about what had increased.
I think that in cull areas, after a few years and the incidence of TB is reducing, they are using a different test on cattle which will not give any false negatives but does give more false positives. This could mean that the number of cattle culled increases but doesn't mean the incidence of TB is increasing.

This was Gloucester, think the tb cases went from 10 to 13, but no total of animals removed ,so could have been only 3 animals, were inside a cull zone and cattle being removed seems to be dropping faster than farms going completely clear.