Badger cull to be replaced by vaccines in bovine TB fight

[Bilbo]

Badger cull to be replaced by vaccines in bovine TB fight

Trials of a vaccine for cattle will take place, while more badgers will also be vaccinated.

www.bbc.co.uk

As I understand it, badgers became protected in 1973 to deal with the issue of badger baiting etc.
They are not rare so why could they not be categorized in the same way as foxes are?
Foxes are controlled frequently on both a rural and urban basis without apparent threat to the species long term survival.

 

[enfieldspares]

Defra, the environment department, said trials of a vaccine will take place over the next five years, and there are plans to vaccinate more badgers.

And that, AFAIK, means that the EU now won't accept meat or milk products from such vaccinated animals. Or can anyone advise correctly?

 

[I. Farticus]

Stick them on the General Licence, with closed seasons, and get out the 1950s cook books... I fancy trying brock

 

[old keeper]

Badger cull to be replaced by vaccines in bovine TB fight

Trials of a vaccine for cattle will take place, while more badgers will also be vaccinated.

www.bbc.co.uk

As I understand it, badgers became protected in 1973 to deal with the issue of badger baiting etc.
They are not rare so why could they not be categorized in the same way as foxes are?
Foxes are controlled frequently on both a rural and urban basis without apparent threat to the species long term survival.

I think you'll find its heading roughly in that direction.

 

[Flash9919]

Bilbo, I couldn't agree more. like foxes, badgers have no financial value. Foxes to some extent are selectively culled when they are causing a problem, ie around release pens and around lambing time etc...for this reason the population remains fairly static, If they had a value say £15/tail then I have no doubt the population would decrease significantly and they'd probably end up being protected in statute. The problem with Badger's is that they are already protected....can you image what the tree hugging, vegan do-gooders would be saying on the front pages if DEFRA suddenly decided to declassify their protected status....I can't see this or for that matter any future government attempting to even try....

 

[CarlW]

And that, AFAIK, means that the EU now won't accept meat or milk products from such vaccinated animals. Or can anyone advise correctly?

It depends if the new test can differentiate between a vaccinated animal and one with the disease. The EU would then probably be happy, I imagine.

 

[bobjs]

they need to go on the GL as mentioned with a closed season lets say from the 1st of December until the 25th of December.

bob.

 

[Mick Miller]

I'm a visual learner. I find often a picture or pictures can communicate thousands of words. In fact, I think there's even a saying along these lines. Anyhow, if you feel that this heralds the demise of the ubiquitous badgers protected status and a sudden appearance onto the General Licence, this may influence your thought processes...

 

[old man]

And that, AFAIK, means that the EU now won't accept meat or milk products from such vaccinated animals. Or can anyone advise correctly?

I understood that too?
If all true?
This on top of the red diesel situation my nor leave them with many votes next time around?

 

[reloader54]

I'm a visual learner. I find often a picture or pictures can communicate thousands of words. In fact, I think there's even a saying along these lines. Anyhow, if you feel that this heralds the demise of the ubiquitous badger's protected status and a sudden appearance onto the General Licence, this may influence your thought processes...

View attachment 151432

BINGO We have a winner... study these images well,, this is the point at which we will look back upon as the "beginning of the end".

 

[bogtrotter]

Bilbo, I couldn't agree more. like foxes, badgers have no financial value. Foxes to some extent are selectively culled when they are causing a problem, ie around release pens and around lambing time etc...for this reason the population remains fairly static, If they had a value say £15/tail then I have no doubt the population would decrease significantly and they'd probably end up being protected in statute. The problem with Badger's is that they are already protected....can you image what the tree hugging, vegan do-gooders would be saying on the front pages if DEFRA suddenly decided to declassify their protected status....I can't see this or for that matter any future government attempting to even try....

In the 1950s and early 60s they did have a bounty paid on them at least in Scotland they had 10 shillings per tail if I remember correctly paid out at your local police station remember cycling to police station with bags of tails to
collect my fathers bounty.
Every keeper collected their bounty later after the bounty ended there was a market for the skins , better still in the
1980s Gamedealers were paying £10 per fox unskinned.
None of this made the slightest bit of difference to the overall population so while it would be nice to be paid a bounty
again don't see it making a significant difference to the population.

 

[Island]

Stick them on the General Licence, with closed seasons, and get out the 1950s cook books... I fancy trying brock

It's alright.

Better than Golden Eagle, but not as nice as Swan....

 

[macfarlane]

In the 1950s and early 60s they did have a bounty paid on them at least in Scotland they had 10 shillings per tail if I remember correctly paid out at your local police station remember cycling to police station with bags of tails to
collect my fathers bounty.
Every keeper collected their bounty later after the bounty ended there was a market for the skins , better still in the
1980s Gamedealers were paying £10 per fox unskinned.
None of this made the slightest bit of difference to the overall population so while it would be nice to be paid a bounty
again don't see it making a significant difference to the population.

There would be a massive difference now with the advances in night vision and thermal scopes etc. Foxys are getting hammered nowadays with people shooting them purely cause there on the general licence and classed as pests/vermin.
Sure shoot them if causing damage, but seems to be people just shooting them to see who can shoot the most.

 

[reloader54]

There would be a massive difference now with the advances in night vision and thermal scopes etc. Foxys are getting hammered nowadays with people shooting them purely cause there on the general licence and classed as pests/vermin.
Sure shoot them if causing damage, but seems to be people just shooting them to see who can shoot the most.

and assuming that's factual, add to that the numbers hit on roads by an ever increasing number of vehicles and road networks, and then those that are snared as shown by a recent post on here, and still the numbers increase,
fox number controls have been going on for countless decades, imagine how they would fare if none of this happened.

 

[kes]

There would be a massive difference now with the advances in night vision and thermal scopes etc. Foxys are getting hammered nowadays with people shooting them purely cause there on the general licence and classed as pests/vermin.
Sure shoot them if causing damage, but seems to be people just shooting them to see who can shoot the most.

Unusual point of view seeing that most permissions relate to the lanndowners requirements and I have yet to hear a farmer require the total eradication of a species (its not possible anyway). They usually ask for them to be 'tidied up'. Here, around lambing time, its see one shoot it, but not for the rest of the year. Here though dogs running sheep are simply shot - no excuse, just dead. Given the farmers margins on sheep, one cannot blame them.

 

[Orion]

And if at the end of 5 years the results of the vaccine trials are inconclusive or possibly even negative?

Is it any coincidence that this is being announced at a time when the NFU are proceeding with a JR against DEFRA for the twelfth hour cancellation of last September’s cull licence in Derbyshire, where meddling by No 10 is suspected!

NFU Challenge DEFRA

NFU Challenge To Proceed

 

[Mick9abf]

Stick them on the General Licence, with closed seasons, and get out the 1950s cook books... I fancy trying brock

Add them along with Pine Martins, no need for them to have total protection anymore either, they’re everywhere and people wonder why there’s no Caper.

 

[bowji john]

And that, AFAIK, means that the EU now won't accept meat or milk products from such vaccinated animals. Or can anyone advise correctly?

That sir is the relevant point

All this hoo ha is not about whether vaccinations will work - it is about selling milk and meat to a market that deliberately puts up 'technical' barriers to skew fair trade in favour of an inefficient French agricultural monopoly

Like their fishermen - when the real world comes a knocking, they bring their country to a stand still in protest

 

[bogtrotter]

There would be a massive difference now with the advances in night vision and thermal scopes etc. Foxys are getting hammered nowadays with people shooting them purely cause there on the general licence and classed as pests/vermin.
Sure shoot them if causing damage, but seems to be people just shooting them to see who can shoot the most.

Not sure that that is correct while thermal and NV may be a game changer in the sense that more foxes are shot.
But back in those days there were a great many more keepers than there are today and they waged war on foxes 365 days a
year , yes the shot some foxes but most were snared or trapped , snares and traps work while you are a sleep they
also didn't have many of the legal restrictions we have today, for example there was no requirement to look traps and snares every day , gin traps were still legal in Scotland for foxes until the mid 70s and during the fifties poison was still
in regular use plus other methods that I won't mention both legal and illegal, not saying they were right or that we
should go back to those ways just stating a fact.
I know that my father killed every bit as many foxes as I ever have and only a small percentage of his were shot and he
was not alone there were a great many doing the same.
So I'm not convinced there are more foxes being killed just the methods used and the people doing it.

 

[shakey jake]

id say you have no hope of seeing badgers loose protected status, i had a call to a house with a bad mouse problem the tennant had caught a few to show me, all field mice, no poison is listed for field mice now, all poison used for mouse control used to just say mice, now all say house mice.
this is because field mice dont come inside so dont need controlling, end result unhapp land lord, tennant, letting agent and no job for me, they wont pay me to trap. badgers no hope