Badgers provide a number of ecosystem benefits, but England continues to issue permits allowing people to kill them.

England has continued to issue permits allowing people to kill badgers to protect cattle from disease, despite local extinctions and scientific evidence stating that badger culling is not the best way to protect bovines. What’s happening?

The Guardian reported that it accessed leaked documents showing that England’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued 17 new licenses in June that allow people to kill badgers. The publication explains that badger culling has been used in the country for years to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis to cattle and has led to local extinctions.

However, scientific reports have shown that culling badgers is not the most effective way to stop the spread of this disease, and DEFRA’s decision overrules the advice of its own scientific adviser, Peter Brotherton, director of science for Natural England.

  • Churbleyimyam@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    4 months ago

    Two types of tuberculin are injected into the cow’s neck; one bovine and one avian (the control). Three days later the resulting swellings are compared. A large enough swelling of the bovine injection site compared to the avian one is interpreted as evidence of an immune response having been mounted against it because the cow has previously been exposed to the bovine strain. In a cow that’s been vaccinated, the skin test provokes an immune response in the same way as in a cow who is actively infected, rendering the test useless for detecting active infections i.e it produces false positives. Nobody will import your animals if they can’t tell whether they’ve been vaccinated or are ridden with an infectious disease. A couple of countries have chosen to simply sacrifice exports and get on with vaccination, which is good in terms of preventing tens of thousands of cows being needlessly slaughtered early but it also means they can continue to keep the cows in the conditions that make diseases like TB spread in their herds. It’s bad for the animals quality of life but it’s also stupid because TB isn’t the only disease which will emerge in herds kept in those conditions.

    TLDR it’s all short-term profit-driven thinking.