From November 12th 2015 information on TB policy across England, Scotland and Wales, i.e. all advice on bTB from government, farming experts, leading vets and agricultural colleges, can be found on the website www.TBhub.co.uk.
John T farmer "Re: vaccine trials delayed.
As an interested observer rather than a scientist, it seems to me that developing
vaccines to address the problem of bTB must indeed be "challenging, time-consuming and resource-intensive" otherwise
it would have been done long ago. The BCG vaccine introduced nearly 100 years ago has still not been superseded.
Britain in the 1970's and 80's came close to eliminating bTB in cattle without recourse
to vaccines and there is no reason why it cannot be achieved now, other than the intransigence of a certain
section of the population and the spineless politicians who will not stand up to them."
The new TB Free England website , launched by the NFU at the end of last month, has been produced to provide factual information about the disease and the urgent need to control its spread in badgers and other wildlife.
Meanwhile, we read in Farmers Weekly that the coalition of charities "Team Badger", whose members have set their faces against any culling of badgers, says that the governmentif the targeted culling of badgers goes forward - "relentlessly pursuing a badger cull" as they put it - in the pilot zones of west Somerset and west Gloucestershire in the Summer where so many farmers' lives have been devastated as a result of bTB test results. Farmers who support badger culling could even be "banned from trading at a farmers' market in Gloucestershire under plans to force traders to sign an anti-cull agreement" (see Farmers Weekly for April 17).
"risks losing votes in next week's local council elections"
Statement from the European Commission regarding an article in the Mail On Sunday on 21 October
"The European Commission was disappointed to see an article by Brian May in the Mail on Sunday on 21 October which quotes Georg Haeusler, chief adviser to the European Commissioner for Agriculture. Some of the quotes are out of context or inaccurate - and therefore misleading.
Vaccination of cattle against TB is forbidden under current EU rules agreed by all Member States, including the UK. This is because there is no effective test to tell the difference between vaccinated and infected animals, making it impossible to protect the food chain and identify which animals could be exported.
If such a test were to be developed and approved at EU and international levels – which would take time – the rules could be changed relatively quickly. But Mr Haeusler explained that this would be the responsibility of the Health Commissioner, who deals with vaccination issues, and who could also advise on the exact process and timing in this case.
The Commission provides substantial financial support to the approved UK bovine TB eradication programme. For 2012, EUR 31.2 million were allocated to implement a rapid eradication strategy. There is no EU financial support provided for the culling of badgers." Our grateful thanks to Sabine Zentis who sent the link and puts into words what many must be feeling: "As I see it there is enough evidence not to get into vaccination of badgers and cattle, with or without a DIVA test as the vaccines against mycobacterial disease ( like Johne's) in my opinion can't contribute to eradicate the disease but rather suppress severe clinical signs. Especially with bTB I wouldn't take this approach, it is still a zoonotic disease and there is no way around having a go at infected animals, be it cattle or badgers. This is just depressing."
Once again, we are grateful to Dr Fink, for his informed opinion. He writes today:
"...The problem that Governments have is that they are afraid to say 'we don't know'.
There are an awful lot of 'don't knows' here, and trying to shoot 70% of the badgers and not managing it ( how do you measure accurately?) to gain a 16% reduction in cattle cases seems a bit of a tall order. We have no good vaccine as yet for badgers, cattle, nor indeed for Homo Sapiens, we do not know enough about the persistence of the organism in the environment outside mammalian bodies, we do not know the amount of inter-cattle infection in a herd from one index case nor do we know the residual infection in other wildlife than badgers.
So all in all a dog's breakfast. We need decent research and time. It will take time - and in the meantime perhaps triple antibiotics and progesterones at feeding stations ( badgers are quickly habituated) may just reduce the Mycobacterial carriage, reduce fertility and keep badgers fat and contented - and thus reduce their wandering.
Does any one else have a better suggestion?"
To us, the suggestion Dr Fink has been making for some time that triple antibiotics and progesterones be put in bait at feeding stations in order to reduce badger reproduction while keeping infection low, seems a truly excellent interim measure. As usual, comments from other informed sources would be welcome.(Update: The veterinarian, Ueli Zellweger, queries what dosage Dr Fink would suggest for both antibiotics and the progesterone, since badgers differ in weight. He points out that if a pregnant sow eats progesterone "her gestation will be prolonged which puts her and her cubs to a high risk")
Owen Paterson has announced that the proposed pilot culls, due to take place this autumn, will be postponed until next year "due to logistical problems with the delivery this year".
The BVA has issued a press release in which its President, Peter Jones, said:
Alastair Driver's article today gives an excellent summary of the points they make in the Guardian. We re-summarise them thus:
They acknowledge that culling alone is not the answer but stress that vaccination of either badgers or cattle is not a viable alternative at the present time. Read in full
bTB is a disease that can infect many mammals, including goats, pigs, alpacas and even people
the number of cases in cattle has been doubling every nine years and culling up to 26,000 cattle each year has not stopped this "relentless increase" the decision to cull was based on scientific evidence of more than 15 years of intensive research plus evidence from other countries. Research demonstrates that cattle and badgers transmit the disease to each other and "culling badgers leads to a reduction of the disease in cattle if it is carried out over a large enough area and for a sufficient length of time" culling will initially take place in two pilot areas to "enable us to test our assumptions about the effectiveness, safety and humaneness of culling by means of controlled shooting". Culling over a sufficiently large area should ensure the benefits outweigh problems caused by movement of badgers. management measures to reduce the risk of spread of disease between badgers and cattle will be undertaken by farmers
The new DEFRA Minister's speech to the Conservative Party Conference is reported in the Independent:"...Let's be clear. Bovine TB imposes a shattering financial and emotional cost on our farmers, their families and communities. This will only get worse if we continue the cowardly policy of inaction pursued by Labour in government. Let me tell you, there is no easy solution. Despite £15.5 million being spent on vaccine research, there was no workable solution in the short term. We need healthy wildlife living alongside healthy cattle. Only if we work to eradicate the reservoir of TB in our badgers, will we have the strong and prosperous dairy industry the public wishes to see."
This was the reaction of a Freedom Food pig producer who has written to the National Pig Association expressing serious concerns about the letter sent by the RSPCA to its members saying that its "Freedom Food" scheme would suspend participating farmers if they take part in the badger cull trials. See Alistair Driver's article in the Farmers Guardian.
While there can be little doubt that many RSPCA officers on the ground do sincere and helpful work, this website has been concerned about the increasingly political powers of the charity for many years. Owen Paterson has now warned the RSPCA to be 'wary' that its political campaigning activities do not compromise its charitable status. (see yesterday's Farmers Guardian)
The Farmers Guardian today:" ....told a meeting of the Conservative Rural Affairs Group, in Birmingham, that, as things stand today, vaccines are ‘not yet in a position to be deployed’ in either cattle or badgers. "The injectable badger vaccine may work on individual animals but are we seriously being told by these people that we are just going to inject every single badger every year?He reminded them that "we are still held back by EU rules" which would need changing, and insisted the pilot culls in West Gloucestershire and West Somerset were the right way forward. They were "practical exercises" to establish if culling using controlled shooting works.
He said BCG was available for cattle but was ‘only 56-68 per cent effective’, according to research, meaning at least one-third of animals would remain unprotected. He added that the DIVA test was not yet available..."
FWi quotes Glyn Hewinson, chief scientist at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA).
Having pointed out the present limitations of cattle vaccine he says that bTB vaccination for cattle is available and when used in conjunction with existing control measures, it could offer farmers an important tool to help prevent TB infection in their herds. "I don't think it can be a strategy on its own - you have to use all the tools in your toolbox," he said.
The makers of vaccines and DIVA tests want a good return on their investment, and while vaccination goes on being prohibited by the EU, a lack of confidence that investment in developing really effective vaccines can be financially worthwhile would be understandable. DEFRA is, we are told, working with the EU to change the current EU reluctance to allow a BCG cattle vaccine and an accompanying DIVA test. We can only hope that this will be successful and the phrase we have been hearing for the past decade, and longer, that "the timetable remains uncertain" may soon change to something that reflects the urgency of the situation.
Dianne Summers writes that there are several updates on the website www.alpacatb.org.
1. Home Page Defra Table of confirmed New breakdowns by county in camelids up to 30th June 2012. Below the number 61 click on the link to view the Defra table.
2. NEWS PAGE and PCR TAB Update on 2nd stage of the PCR study.
3. NEWS Page Letter from DEFRA on the way forward regarding camelids and btb.
She adds, "Please note these are only proposed measures and are not yet in place."As always, our sincere thanks for all the work Dianne Summers does, in spite of the fact that she herself is suffering from bTB.