|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Testing for TB
by Tom Feilden, Environment Correspondent |
|
|
|
Cattle bought to re-stock herds decimated by foot and mouth disease have tested positive for bovine-TB. Our environment correspondent Tom Feilden reports on yet another blow for the farming industry.
Two farms in the Lake District and a third across in Scotland are under quarantine again and the infected animals have been slaughtered. Bovine TB is a serious, and worsening, problem in some parts of the country - and with so many farmers looking to re-stock at one time, the question now is whether the disease will spread to previously "clean" regions like Cumbria.
The Government is so concerned it has imposed new movement restrictions in TB hotspots, and ordered testing for all re-stocked animals within three months.
The fact is that no one knows how bad the problem might be. Testing for TB - which is done every six months in so called TB hotspots - and culling to eradicate the disease, were suspended for most of last year because of the foot and mouth epidemic.
The backlog currently stands at 26,000 tests on more than 1000 farms. And, alarmingly, vets are now reporting outbreaks involving dozens of animals rather than the ones and twos being picked up before last year.
Many farmers think they know what's to blame - the badger. The Krebs cull - devised by Sir John Krebs in the 1990s, and involving the systematic culling of thousands of badgers - was supposed to prove whether there was, or was not, a link between bovine-TB and badgers once and for all:
At the time, Professor Krebs described evidence of a link as compelling, but the experiment quickly ran into problems, and is now years behind schedule. It too was suspended during the foot and mouth crisis.
In the meantime the incidence of bovine-TB has risen from 404 herd breakdowns in 1995 to 1039 in the year 2000. The National Farmers' Union argues we should go ahead with a programme to cull badgers in TB hotspots, even before the results of the Krebs experiment are in.
But the idea that the badger must be to blame for any increase in bovine-TB is deeply flawed, according to the National Federation of Badger Groups. They argue it's more likely to have been caused by cattle-to-cattle transmission while animals were cooped up indoors during the epidemic.
The NFBG argues better animal husbandry rather than the slaughter of thousands of badgers, is the best long term solution to bovine-TB. More rigorous testing of animals before they're allowed to leave a farm, rather than after they arrive at a new location, might tackle the problem of re-stocking in the wake of foot and mouth. But it would be costly and time-consuming.
In the interim the Krebs experiment grinds on. Its final results were to have been presented over the winter of 2004/5. After last year that prediction now looks optimistic.
LINKS
Please Note:
The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external websites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
BSE, FMD, now TB - the hard life of a cow.
|
|
|
 |
|
A dead badger - but is it TB?
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
