TB...Brian May, what’s the answer?

[Hampton]

Dear Brian
I’ve heard you spout your drivel about TB on many occasions but I thought on this occasion I would ask your advice.
You’ve often stated Einstein’s oft overused and misquoted post that “stupidity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome”. With this in mind, following our first ever TB outbreak in 2011 (4 cows picked up on 4 separate short interval tests) I heeded this advice and fenced off all watercourses on our grass fields.
This must have worked because we have been happily free of TB ever since. Until yesterday, when 2 cows reacted and are now sentenced to death. Both have 4 month old calves at foot, and one has twins.
So Brian, what next? Any bright ideas?
7 more TB free years would be nice.

 

[Werzle]

£669 each , you have my sympathy.

 

[Hampton]

£669 each , you have my sympathy.

One is Under 30 months old, bought as a store to fatten, she stole the bull at the previous farm and calved at 13 months. She calved herself this year after I decided to keep her in the herd. Wish I’d have fattened her now!

 

[Doc]

Why are you asking a guitarist, albeit a good one, for scientific advice?
If I’m having a problem with a G chord, I’ll ask Brian, if I’m having a problem with an epidemiological problem, I’ll ask an epidemiologist.
They are very different skill sets.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Why are you asking a guitarist, albeit a good one, for scientific advice?
If I’m having a problem with a G chord, I’ll ask Brian, if I’m having a problem with an epidemiological problem, I’ll ask an epidemiologist.
They are very different skill sets.

I think you should address that question to Brian, not Doc.

 

[mo!]

Why are you asking a guitarist, albeit a good one, for scientific advice?
If I’m having a problem with a G chord, I’ll ask Brian, if I’m having a problem with an epidemiological problem, I’ll ask an epidemiologist.
They are very different skill sets.

Without wanting to defend Brian May in any way, to dismiss him as a "guitarist " is rude. He has a PHD in astrophysics and has worked with NASA, so a pretty bright bloke.

As I say, I think he's a nutter, but not just a musician.

 

[beardface]

Without wanting to defend Brian May in any way, to dismiss him as a "guitarist " is rude. He has a PHD in astrophysics and has worked with NASA, so a pretty bright bloke.

As I say, I think he's a nutter, but not just a musician.

Perfect candidate for a one way mission to mars then

 

[Midnight plough boy]

Perfect candidate for a one way mission to mars then

It wouldn’t be right to send him on his own, better strap Chris Packham in next to him.

 

[beardface]

It wouldn’t be right to send him on his own, better strap Chris Packham in next to him.

Could chuck monbiot in as well. Save the world some oxygen

 

[Werzle]

Tides turned , badger culls being approved all over now.

 

[JP1]

£669 each , you have my sympathy.

And for many of us the valuation - insulting though it is - becomes insignificant behind the personal stress and angst, the lost genetics you've worked on and the sheer idiocy of permitting the spread of a grade 3 pathogen in a wildlife vector marching steadily at 15 miles a year (yes Minister that means every 5 years' administration 75 mile radius)




Oh and by the way, nobody ever has an answer when I ask as someone in low level TB4 how a fellow villager is allowed to bring in more alpacas from a TB hotspot , no tags, no recording, no TB testing or pre / post movement testing

I cannot imagine being in the OP's shoes

You have my greatest sympathies

 

[Hampton]

And for many of us the valuation - insulting though it is - becomes insignificant behind the personal stress and angst, the lost genetics you've worked on and the sheer idiocy of permitting the spread of a grade 3 pathogen in a wildlife vector marching steadily at 15 miles a year (yes Minister that means every 5 years' administration 75 mile radius)




Oh and by the way, nobody ever has an answer when I ask as someone in low level TB4 how a fellow villager is allowed to bring in more alpacas from a TB hotspot , no tags, no recording, no TB testing or pre / post movement testing

I cannot imagine being in the OP's shoes

You have my greatest sympathies

Thank you
It’s tough, but in many ways I’m lucky. There are many with far greater TB problems than me. However, having said that I am now baffled as to how we can protect ourselves in future. We have been clear for years, we feed in raised troughs, have fenced off water courses, don’t have neighbouring contact with cattle, don’t have a problem with deer and our water troughs use mains water.
Aside from the obvious possible vector, I’m not sure what we could change.
On a different note, my question to Brian May was obviously tongue in cheek, but he has been all over the tv over the last few years pretending to be an expert. Therefore his views on my situation would be interesting

 

[exmoor dave]

Thank you
It’s tough, but in many ways I’m lucky. There are many with far greater TB problems than me. However, having said that I am now baffled as to how we can protect ourselves in future. We have been clear for years, we feed in raised troughs, have fenced off water courses, don’t have neighbouring contact with cattle, don’t have a problem with deer and our water troughs use mains water.
Aside from the obvious possible vector, I’m not sure what we could change.
On a different note, my question to Brian May was obviously tongue in cheek, but he has been all over the tv over the last few years pretending to be an expert. Therefore his views on my situation would be interesting

Water troughs well Off the ground/ High enough to stop badgers bathing in them?

We traced our worse outbreaks back to troughs, so we only let sheep drink from the traditional low-level metal/ concrete troughs now

 

[Henarar]

Water troughs well Off the ground/ High enough to stop badgers bathing in them?

We traced our worse outbreaks back to troughs, so we only let sheep drink from the traditional low-level metal/ concrete troughs now

how do you get on with cows and calves, can the calves reach ?

 

[Hampton]

how do you get on with cows and calves, can the calves reach ?

Was just thinking about this. Large high troughs for cows, low muzzle troughs for calves?

 

[exmoor dave]

how do you get on with cows and calves, can the calves reach ?

Was just thinking about this. Large high troughs for cows, low muzzle troughs for calves?

Covered drinking bowl, also if shared grazing with sheep, they can use the bowl too, of course badgers can potentially drink from the bowl but importantly they can't bath in the bowl.

That's the big danger with traditional 18" high troughs, the badgers climb in for for bath and pee in the water as they do it

 

[exmoor dave]

Moveable trough we use on some rotational grazing, covered drinking bowl one end

 

[davidroberts30]

Is there such a thing as a water trough like a pedal operated bin??
Ie cow is heavy enough to stand on a plate to open the lid on the water trough

 

[Treg]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that Brian May is paying for research on a farm in Devon that involves culling badgers that have Tb. I'm sure the farm went Tb free for the first time in years & Mr May was changing his opinion. Has anybody got any more information on this?

 

[primmiemoo]

Something the State Vet said when the herd here was wiped out in one swell foop was that there are occasionally solitary badgers that are somehow resistant "super-shedders" of disease and can simply wander through a herd of cattle leaving infection in their wake.

I'm pretty sure one such came through here, infecting not only the cattle, but the resident sett of clean badgers that must have died horribly of bTB.

How to sort out a badger like that?

Bought in cattle have tested clear every year since - the mandatory annual test, and each pre-movement test. It doesn't yet give me confidence to restart a suckler herd, though - there's the emotional pain of the thought of a further positive test for a start, then the compulsory purchase price for reactors must be higher, and I'm scanning the horizon for a less stormy outlook for the job generally before risking it.

To clarify, I like badgers - they're fascinating animals, and I've felt privileged to observe them truly wild (never slocked them with peanuts or anything) - and would like them to be protected from their highly infectious fellows that wander through. That's an aspect that I have yet to read or hear addressed by anyone.