This post is about Bovine Tuberculosis.
Bovine TB can be carried by almost any mammal: cattle, deer, dogs, goats, pigs, sheep, cats, foxes, badger, and even humans.
In the US, we have pretty much eradicated Bovine TB in our herds over the last 100 years through a concerted program of testing.
Wild animal populations, however, can still infect cattle in the US, though they do so only rarely.
US wild animals that can contract and carry Bovine TB include raccoons, coyote, opossum, cougar, wolves, bears, bobcats, and bison. Oddly, American Badgers cannot carry Bovine TB.
Effective Bovine TB vaccines exist; it’s the same safe TB vaccine that humans have been taking for over 90 years.
The problem with vaccinating cattle is that vaccination renders useless regular Bovine TB screening.
In the UK, some concern has been raised about European badger — and badger alone — carrying Bovine TB into cattle herds.
Is the goal here to eliminate Bovine TB, or to find a reason to cull and hunt badger?
Who can say?
What we *can* say is that it appears a non-lethal Bovine TB solution is at hand — trapping and vaccinating badger using the same TB vaccine administered to humans.
The benefit here is that badgers are territorial, which means removing badgers from an area tends to encourage badger migration into the area to fill the void, thereby potentially spreading Bovine TB.
Because vaccinated badgers hold their territory, a vaccinated population of badgers tends to discourage badger migration.
As can be seen in the video, Badger Vaccination in this case was suggested and pioneered by 20 cattle farms in Cornwall that were less than enthusiastic about a badger cull.
Does badger vaccination work? Very clearly it does.
But will either badger vaccination or a badger cull end all Bovine TB cases in the UK?
Not a chance, so long as any and every other mammal is allowed to roam the countryside.
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