https://youtube/watch?v=74pBWfvA98U Ive just added a comment: For those who couldnt hear me at 14:30 “My name is Ama Menec, I’m from South Devon and I run a badger vaccination scheme in Devon. I just wanted to pick up a few points that Tim Coulson made. Last year, I don’t know if you attended this, but there was a badger and cattle vaccination conference at London Zoo, did you attend that?” Professor Tim Coulson shakes his head. “While I was there I actually got to speak to the only scientist, (as far as I’m aware the only scientist), who conducted a scientific study proving that badgers can pass bovine TB to cattle. I believe she was from Nottingham University but if you want to check that out speak to BACVI, the Badger And Cattle Vaccination Initiative. What she said to me was very interesting because the scientific experiment she conducted was so contrived that it could never happen in real life. What she did is they purposefully infected 4 badgers with bovine TB by making them inhale a mist of live bacteria, and then they imprisoned them with 6 young calves for several months in a very small pen together where they couldnt get out, and then they tested the cattle and found they had bovine TB. Bovine TB as you know is a slow growing disease, and that only inhaling a few bovine TB bacteria isnt going to kill you. The other thing about that, was also you were saying about the vaccines… the vaccine in badgers is between 84 and 86% effective. Now that same vaccine used in the human population is only 50% effective, but it’s enough to give us herd immunity, which is why we as a species don’t have a particular problem in this country. So the fact that is 84 to 86% effective in badgers is a cause of great hope, and also most badgers only live for up to 4 years, the average lifespan of a badger is 4 years, and as bovine TB is a slow growing disease, most badgers that catch bovine Tb don’t become excretors before they die, as it’s a slow growing disease. You’re also right to say that Europe doesnt tackle bovine TB in the way that we do in Britain, for a start they don’t cull badgers, and they see this as an environmental disease, and in many parts of Europe they actually prevent the grazing of cattle on TB infected land for up to two years, as they recognise that bovine TB can exist in the soil for up to two years. And the last thing I wanted to point out was that the last two people to speak, (meaning the two pro badger cull panellists), talked about TB spread across the country as if farming practices during that time have not changed, and that the densities of cattle hasnt changed, and that farming practices haven’t changed and therefore it can only be the badgers, and I think that is to misinform us quite considerably.” Apologies for my halting delivery… I hadnt had a lot of sleep and the constant visual and verbal heckling from the pro-cull panellists was very distractin
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 21:18:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015