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Case Studies and Articles Latest |
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9 Mar 2013, 8:16 PM
Bovine TB and cattle vaccination - Rethink bTB's submission to EFRA read more...
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9 Mar 2013, 8:07 PM
The following is the formal response submitted to EFRA by farmers who own a 48ha farm in Gloucestershire and have kept beef cattle since the 1980's in a TB 'hot-spot'. The business has included a commercial beef and calf rearing unit but the herd has never been under TB2 restrictions. It makes some excellent points and is well worth reading. It has been reproduced here with permission from the farmers. read more...
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15 Jan 2013, 8:33 PM
TB Health Check Wales was a zero tolerance policy aimed at TB testing all cattle in Wales. It was introduced on October 2008 and ran to the end of December 2009. It was a test of all cattle herds in Wales over a 15 month period 'to provide a more accurate picture of the disease'. According to Gwlad, Bovine TB Special Edition Summer 2010 the campaign is costing some £27.7 million ( with funding from EU). With the increased testing an increasing number of positive and inconclusive animals were identified and slaughtered since the programme began. The costs continued to escalate, as did the hardship to cattle owners suffering continuous testing and herd breakdowns. read more...
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8 Jan 2013, 5:54 PM
The Republic of Ireland has been culling badgers since the 1980s and it is understood there was national culling from 1997. Between 1996 and 2006 about 4,000 badgers were culled each year. Most are caught using snares and then shot. One study, known as the Four Areas Project, alleges reductions in cattle TB incidence ranging from 51% to 68% over a five-year culling period. The information is being used to help support badger culling in England. Culling is still underway. However, one vet, formerly practising in Donegal, is questioning the claims being made. He believes perturbation is a much bigger threat than we are being led to believe. He is concerned that Ireland has officially denied any perturbation at all. read more...
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14 Dec 2012, 6:09 PM
In December 2012 a farmer from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, an alleged bTB hot spot area and venue for one of the infamous pilot badger culls next year, was taken to court for offences relating to bTB controls. The fraud offences could be summarised as deliberate swapping of identities of TB reactor cattle with healthy livestock; retaining the reactor animal and producing milk from it; and in one case having a calf born to a reactor cow. read more...
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25 Nov 2012, 4:50 PM
BOVINE TB ERADICATION STRATEGY - Strengthening the eradication programme and new ways of working. The ANIMAL WELFARE GROUP has submitted an interesting representation to the Government's new Animal Health and Welfare Board. As it contains some useful and interesting information we are setting it out in fu read more...
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3 Nov 2012, 3:48 PM
There are an increasing number of alpacas being dragged into the system, many are pets. The owners are coerced into having them tested using the skin and blood tests that seem to be even more imperfect for this species than they are for cattle. Many alpacas are being slaughtered after testing positive to the badger Brock TB stat pak. There are no alterations to this test assay other than camelid blood. They are then found to have absolutely no sign of bTB, either at post-mortem or following tissue culture. This is the distressing story of one owner and her alpacas. read more...
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20 Oct 2012, 7:44 PM
Farmers want vaccination for their cattle, not badger culls. Despite losing more than half their valuable organic herd of beef cattle, a Devon farming partnership is against the badger cull. Instead they want a 'vaccine that works.' read more...
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15 Oct 2012, 5:50 PM
Dave Purser owns a 48ha pasture farm in Glos. He comes from a local farming family and has kept his own cattle since the 1980′s in a TB ‘hot-spot’. The business has included a commercial beef and calf rearing unit but the herd has never been under TB2 restrictions. Here he gives his views on the bovine TB problems. read more...
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13 Oct 2012, 6:48 PM
Steve Jones has 35 years of experience working within a diverse range of livestock enterprises; from small to medium sized units to large scale agri-business within various locations around the globe. He is trained in organic milk and meat production and have extensive practical and theoretical knowledge in all aspects of the industry including: calf rearing; hoof trimming; herd health; cattle breeding and day to day management at the highest level. He has managed some of the highest yielding dairy herds in the world while attaining consistent levels of hygiene and disease resistance within the livestock under my control. He is also a qualified lecturer in rural and environmental studies. read more...
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Farmers want vaccination for their cattle, not badger culls. |
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20 Oct 2012, 7:44 PM
Another tragic case about the bTB breakdowns at a farm in North Devon. The farmers involved want to be able to vaccinate their cattle against bTB. It was reported in This is Devon (www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Badger-cull-pilots-waste-time-money-effort/story-17134043-detail/story.html).
Despite losing more than half their valuable organic herd of beef cattle, a Devon farming partnership is against the badger cull.
Robert James and Kate Palmer think the pilot culls in West Somerset and around Tewkesbury are a waste of time, money and effort.
"If you cull badgers in one place, within months other badgers will come back in. Then what will happen? It will not stop TB," said Robert James, who farms more than 100 acres of organic land at Witheridge, in North Devon.
He and his partner, Kate Palmer, have seen their valuable herd of Ruby Red Devon cattle decimated by bovine TB – and they are well aware of the part badgers can play in spreading disease, which caused the deaths of 26,000 cattle nationally last year.
The partnership at West Yeo Farm had 30 cows, plus their calves earlier this year, but the herd is now reduced to just 20, after cattle failed TB tests.
Highly distressing was the fact that several were found not to have TB at post mortem – but most tragic of all was the loss of the award-winning stock bull.
Mr James explained: "We have lost half our herd of pedigree Devon cattle to TB this year. Our bloodlines go back 70 years and cannot be replaced."
Eighty-five per cent of Ruby Red bloodlines were now crossed with Saler cattle and he has been unable to replace the lost animals with purebred Devons, he said.
Now the partners are petitioning the Government to get on with the development of an effective TB vaccine for cattle without delay – and pay realistic compensation for the loss of organic cattle, instead of a flat rate.
Mr James added: "We have lost over £15,000, as the Government does not pay organic market prices in compensation. We had four cows killed that did not have TB."
But the loss of the stock bull was worse. Mr James explained: "At £14,000 he was the highest-priced Devon bull at auction in the UK. I cried when I had to load him. Kate could not be there because she was so upset. We were so proud when we bought him in spring 2008 at the Ruby Red Devon Society sale at Sedgemoor Market and he was champion on the day, bred by the Dart family at Molland on Exmoor. We have sold semen from him all over the world. Now he is just 660 kilos of dead meat hanging on a hook."
But still he opposes the cull. "I feel very passionately about this. I have a friend who farms on Exmoor whose herd has gone down with TB, without a badger on the farm and with no new stock bought in. The answer was TB in the wild red deer population."
He added: "The Government has to get on with a vaccine that works."
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