TUBERCULOSIS (bovine): UK Badger cull heads for further consultation

19 July 2011 By Richard Black

 The badger (Meles meles) is a protected species under UK and European laws Continue reading the main story

There will be no culling of badgers in England this year to curb cattle tuberculosis, the government has said.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said she was "strongly minded" to allow culling, but details of the methodology will be sent out for consultation.
If that does not raise major obstacles, culling can be piloted next spring, with wider implementation in 2013.
Ministers anticipate a legal challenge, but said that "ducking the issue" was not an option.
Opponents said the government's chosen methods could make the problem worse.
The cull proposals form part of a larger package of measures including enhanced testing of cattle herds and more training of farmers on biosecurity.
Bovine TB currently costs the UK budget about £100m per year.
"We are setting out a comprehensive and balanced package of measures to tackle this terrible disease," Ms Spelman told reporters.
"If we don't change what we're doing, [bovine TB] will cost the country a £1bn over the next 10 years."
Following the Welsh Assembly elections earlier this year, the Welsh government is reviewing its culling policy.

In their sights
Previously, the government - backed by its top science officials - had concluded that culling in hotspot areas, where the TB bacterium is carried from farm to farm via badgers, could reduce the local incidence of disease by 16%.
Those figures were derived from the world's biggest scientific study into the issue, the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT, also known as the Krebs Trial).
In the RBCT, badgers were trapped in cages and shot.
However, the government - and farmers - are keen to have marksmen shooting badgers as they roam at night, which is much cheaper, under licences issued by Natural England.
The effectiveness of "controlled shooting", as it is now known, has never been tested.
Under the new draft guidelines, marksmen would have to hold a top level deerstalking licence, and would also have to undergo training on the specifics of killing badgers with a single shot, and on potential public safety ramifications.
The government envisages pilot culls going ahead in two areas, providing the consultation throws up no major obstacles.
Earlier reports suggested those areas would be in Devon and Gloucestershire, but Ms Spelman said no decision had been taken.
An independent panel would be responsible for evaluating whether culling was effective and humane - "effective" meaning that more than 70% of badgers in the area could be killed over a six-week period.
Experts would monitor how accurately badgers were being shot, and carcasses would be examined to see whether the animals were likely to be dying swiftly.

 Measures such as screening are reducing TB incidence, but are unlikely to eliminate it The RBCT found that killing some badgers made others scatter - "perturbation", as it is known - carrying the TB bacterium to other farms and increasing disease incidence in herds on the edge of the target zones.

Some experts believe controlled shooting could be even more disruptive; but under government plans, there will be no monitoring of perturbation.
Chris Cheeseman, a badger ecologist who formerly headed the Wildlife Disease Unit, said the risk of perturbation even within the target area was very real.
"Where they get the six-week period from is a mystery to me - somebody's just picked a figure out of the air, it's far too long, you'll get badgers percolating in to fill the space left by the ones killed," he said.
"It's a recipe for perturbation."
In addition, he added, if the pilots are discontinued after one year, the exercise will have created two zones of very high perturbation - and presumably an increase in cattle TB in those areas.
"The one difference between the trials and what's being proposed is controlled shooting versus trap and shoot, so the only question is whether there's a difference in perturbation.
"We don't know the answer, but there's no reason to believe it would be worse... [but] that's not evidence, it's expert judgement."
Dr Cheeseman responded: "I am puzzled as to how one of the government's chief scientific advisers can say it is a science-led policy."
Mary Creagh, shadow environment secretary, highlighted government projections that farmers will spend more on the cull than they will save.
"This decision is driven by political expediency rather than sound science," she said.

Farmers' delight
The cull areas would have to be at least 150 sq km in size - and the government estimates that a few thousand badgers could be killed during the pilot phase.

 Farmers maintain culling will improve badger welfare by killing fatally sick animals If the pilots were judged successful, a maximum of 10 licences could be issued per year for four years.

Groups of farmers and landowners would have to convince Natural England, the licensing authority, that culling was necessary and that they could run it effectively.
To deal with the potential problem that some farmers might get disillusioned and withdraw early - creating perturbation - each group will have to deposit enough money into a bank account in advance to cover the entire cost of a four-year operation.
Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union, said the farming community was willing to work within constraints set out by the government.
"Sometimes we have to do what is unpopular because we know it is right," he said.
"Not taking action is no longer an option, and the government has recognised that. As the most recent science shows, badger controls are absolutely necessary, together with cattle controls, to get on top of this devastating disease."

Order questions
Ms Spelman said the government had consulted several times with police forces who would be responsible for public order and safety.
The locations of the pilots will not be kept secret, as local people have to be consulted before culling can begin.
Last month, a poll for the BBC suggested a majority of Britons in both town and country opposed a badger cull.
Across the country, 63% said badgers should not be killed for cattle TB, with 31% in favour of culling and the remainder undecided.
Government statistics show that the incidence of cattle TB declined slightly between 2009 and 2010, probably due to the escalation of TB testing on farms and restrictions on herd movements.
However, provisional figures indicate that incidence was slightly higher in the first two months of this year than in the corresponding period for 2010.
The European badger (Meles meles) is a protected species under European and UK law but ministers can sanction killing in certain circumstances, including to tackle disease.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14204236

TUBERCULOSIS (bovine): David Attenborough: badger cull could worsen TB in cattle

Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk,  14 July 2011


David Attenborough: badger cull could worsen TB in cattle
Vaccination is the only long-term solution to the problem of bovine TB, says the naturalist and broadcaster

  A badger cull could worsen bovine TB in cattle, says David Attenborough. Photograph: Rex Features

The naturalist and broadcaster added his voice to the doubts of many scientists and conservationists before the government's expected confirmation on Monday of a proposed controversial cull of badgers to reduce bovine TB in cattle.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is set to allow farmers to form their own collectives for the "free shooting" of badgers in areas where cattle herds are affected by bovine TB, which is widely blamed by farmers on badgers carrying the disease.
"You may think that culling is the answer and it sounds easy to start with but it can very well make things much worse," warned Attenborough. "Survivors will carry the disease into areas that have hitherto been unaffected. There's good scientific research available to show that culling badgers can make things worse and not better."
Government scientists have concluded that this "perturbation effect" disappears with time after a prolonged culling of badgers. However, a decade of data collected from 10 trial badger culls in the west country in which 11,000 badgers were killed produced a modest average reduction in confirmed TB incidents in cattle of between 12% and 16%. Localised badger culling can more than double the risk of TB infecting cattle, according to a Medical Research Council study published on Wednesday.
Defra's chief scientific adviser and chief veterinary officer have both recommended that large-scale culls over areas of at least 150 sq/km with the co-operation of at least 70% of the landowners in the area would help reduce the incidence of TB in cattle. They also concluded that free shooting, or "controlled shooting", rather than trapping in cages and then shooting badgers, would be the most cost-effective way to do it. Free shooting is calculated to cost £200 per square kilometre compared with £2,500 for cage-trapping and shooting.
Attenborough said there were "very serious consequences" of allowing free shooting of badgers in the countryside at night but expressed sympathy for farmers who saw a 7.5% rise in new incidents of TB in cattle last year. Most farmers are in favour of a badger cull after controls over cattle movement, the slaughter of infected cattle and better biosecurity on farms have failed to stem the spread of the disease, which has cost the government more than £500m in compensation over the past 10 years.
"It's a no-win situation all way round. It sounds very pompous to say I have sympathy with farmers but one clearly does," said Attenborough. "The poor farmer has to put down animals that he cares for daily. Who am I, a townie, to tell people what to do or even to comment on what they do? All I'm saying is the latest research seems to suggest that [a cull] is likely to make things worse rather than better. Something has to be done. What has to be done is get a proper vaccine to enable us to inoculate badger populations."
Lord Krebs, a key scientific expert who recommended the badger culling trial 14 years ago and recently met with Defra to discuss the latest evidence, said this week that culling did not seem an effective way of controlling the disease when it only reduced TB in cattle by 12% to 16%. "So you leave 85% of the problem still there, having gone to a huge amount of trouble to cull a huge number of badgers," he said.
Asked if he thought a policy of badger culling would be a mistake, Krebs said he thought it would be.
A badger vaccine was licenced last year and field trials found the BCG vaccine reduced the incidence of bovine TB in badgers by 73.8%.
No scientific experiments have yet shown what effect that has on reducing bovine TB in cattle but the National Trust is this year beginning a £320,000, four-year programme of badger vaccinations on its 20 sq km Killerton Estate in Devon.
Defra believes it would be too expensive to trap and vaccinate badgers as a response to the disease.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/14/david-attenborough-badger-cull?intcmp=239

TUBERCULOSIS: Badger TB cull: will the zero-cost, zero-sense policy prevail?

Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk,  7 July 2011

Badger TB cull: will the zero-cost, zero-sense policy prevail?
It's B-day for badgers, with environment secretary Caroline Spelman presenting her culling plans to cabinet. But has she solved the policy's fatal flaws?


Many thousands of badgers would be culled under government proposals. Photograph: Steve & Ann Toon/Corbis

Today, if you will, is B-day for badgers. The environment secretary Caroline Spelman will present her vastly delayed decision on whether and how to cull badgers in England to the cabinet. The aim of the measures to reduce the bovine tuberculosis that has ravaged cattle herds in England for many years. She looks likely to back a cull, which will be hugely controversial.
Spelman's positions is unenviable. She faces the farmers' shotguns on one side and the fury of animal rights campaigners on the other. But it is of her own making: accepting the biggest budget cut in Whitehall has left her with no money to pay for a sensible solution.
Instead, the proposals consulted upon by the government, amount to a DIY cull by landowners: they will self-organise into groups and then shoot free-running badgers. At the time, the proposals were described as "scientifically among the worst options they could have chosen" by the leading UK's leading badger ecologist, who worked on the biggest trial ever undertaken.
The first flaw is a big one: no-one knows if the proposal will actually work. That's because the free-shooting of badgers was not tested in the 10-year trial. Instead, the animals were first trapped and then shot, a more expensive method. Another flaw is that there was no mechanism proposed to ensure that the culling is coordinated and maintained over large areas for at least four years. If that does not happen, then "peturbation" - badgers fleeing sporadic killing - spreads TB further, worsening the problem.
The last flaw I will mention is that while the cull is zero-cost to the government, it is expensive for farmers. So expensive in fact, the consultation itself shows, that it outweighs the cost TB outbreaks incur on farms. That gives an incentive to abandon culling halfway through if money is short.
Let me be clear at this point: TB in cattle takes a huge emotional and economic toll on farmers. It is getting worse and has cost the taxpayer about £500m in compensation in the last decade. Something must be done.
The coalition agreement pledges a "science-led policy of badger control in areas with high levels of bovine tuberculosis". So let's take a look at the conclusions on culling reached by one of the most eminent panels of scientists you are ever likely to see, released this week by Defra.
On the issue of culling method, the panel led by Defra's chief scientist Bob Watson and the chief vet Nigel Gibbens, noted:
Informed expert opinion suggests that the more that a future culling policy deviates from the conditions of the [10-year trial], the more likely it is that the effects of that policy will differ, either positively or negatively, and with potential variability in outcome between areas.

On the need for coordinated, extensive and long-term culling:
If culling is not conducted in a coordinated, sustained and simultaneous manner according to the minimum criteria, then this could result in a smaller benefit or even a detrimental effect on confirmed cattle bTB incidence. [NB the minimum criteria are defined as: covering at least 70% of the land within the culled area, a minimum area of 150km2, sustained for a minimum of four years, and conducted simultaneously as defined as within a six-week period each year.]
So, if this culling programme is carried out successfully in one area, what would be the benefit? Somewhere between 8% and 24% reduction in TB in cattle after nine years, say the experts.

And could culling deal with the national problem?
In order to have a significant impact on national disease incidence, culling would need to be conducted over a very large area (bTB is currently considered endemic in over 39,000km2 of England). The associated impact of culling at this scale on the national badger population is unknown.
So could culling at a scale necessary to deal with bovine TB wipe out British badgers? They don't know.
Those are the problems and we will have to wait and see whether Spelman has found solutions to them. The most obvious alternative is already being implemented by the National Trust: trapping and vaccinating the badgers against TB. But, it's expensive and the government has cancelled five projects to test vaccination, leaving just one.
In the medium-term, an oral vaccine, which can be given far more easily and cheaply in food, seems ideal. But will not be ready for use until 2015. In the meantime, five months after the decision was due, we will see whether Spelman has made sense out of the nonsensical proposals.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jul/07/badger-cull-cattle-tb-farm-shooting

TUBERCULOSIS: resurgence on the streets of London, after it was nearly eradicated in the 1970s

Chris Smyth : The Times June 03, 2011


English heritage skeletal remains expert Dr Simon Mays examines vertebrae from the skeleton of an Iron Age man dating back to about 300BC, believed to be the earliest case of tuberculosis found in Britain. Source: Supplied

TUBERCULOSIS has been in Britain since at least 300 BC, yet doctors are still under pressure to eradicate the disease.
The perception was that the Western world had beaten TB, or that it was a disease brought in by immigrants. But it's becoming worryingly common again, after an outbreak in the UK.
Stuart Ford's lungs are wrecked by tuberculosis. His emaciated body racked by consumptive coughing, he cuts a Dickensian figure.
A legacy of life on the streets of London, he talks with difficulty, constantly pausing for breath as he makes dark jokes through a mouth of blackened teeth.
Yet Mr Ford is not a character from a Victorian novel. He is alive - if only just - in 2011, and spoke to The Times in a hostel only a few hundred yards from the Houses of Parliament.
Tuberculosis, long thought to be conquered in Britain, is once again gaining a toehold on the same London streets where it was endemic more than a century ago.
Although TB rates have been rising for decades, many assumed that this was a result of infections brought in from abroad. Mr Ford, who has spent almost half his life homeless in the capital, proves otherwise. While immigrants still account for most cases, about one sufferer in five catches the disease in Britain, with the homeless and prisoners among the hardest hit.
Mr Ford, 42, was incredulous when doctors told him he had TB. He says his first reaction was: "But I'm English! British!" He received his diagnosis when going into hospital for methadone treatment. "Doctors looked at my lungs and took me to casualty. When I came round, everyone was wearing a mask. It was a bit of a shock," he said.
Doctors found that he had lost 75 per cent of his lung capacity to the disease. Because it had been found so late, he faced a gruelling 18 months of treatment. "I was scared shitless. They kept me in quarantine for four months. I didn't have much choice. I couldn't move. They said if you don't take your medicine, they can section you."
Mr Ford remained in hospital, suffering side-effects of fatigue and severe headaches and being given regular antibiotics. Eventually the disease was eradicated. But the damage remains.
"I lost eight stone in two months," he said. "I still don't feel great. I have trouble walking. I'm out of breath even talking for a long time. My lung age is 82. An old bloke went past me the other day. He was going faster than I was."
Mr Ford can no longer work and makes mordant jokes about his desire for a mobility scooter and sheltered housing. "There are so many things I would like to do but can't. Sometimes I can't even get out of bed in the morning. I used to swim like a fish. I can't do anything like that any more."
As well as the physical strain, there is the stigma. "Some people started to see me more like a leper."
Alistair Story, a nurse who runs Britain's only mobile TB detection unit, searching out cases by X-raying prisoners and the homeless across the South of England, says this is common.
"It's a disease of poverty and exclusion that finds a foothold on the margins of society," he said as homeless men queued up to be X-rayed. "We find a case every other week. We find people with big holes in their lungs."
He added: "The vast majority of stuff we deal with is home-grown, British TB. There is a lot of active, ongoing transmission. The evidence is irrefutable. The DNA of the organism tells us clearly that transmission is occurring in the capital. I dealt with a Somali who had TB - everyone assumed he'd brought it in. He got it in the hostel."
Rates of TB among prisoners and the homeless are around five times higher than in the general population; the effect of people congregating in substandard buildings, huddling together for warmth. Those with drug or alcohol problems are particularly vulnerable.
Many homeless people attribute the symptoms of TB to the ravages of drink, drugs and life on the street. Mr Story's "find and treat" project has a van with X-ray equipment that tours hostels and drop-in centres.
"TB usually comes at the end of a hard road," Mr Story said. "As a healthy adult your chances of getting infected are very remote. Your chest will deal with it. But their immune systems are shot to bits. Infection gets a foothold very quickly and progresses to full, active TB. And then they're in the perfect place to transmit it. They've created a perfect storm. There's an unholy alliance between compromised immunity, shared airspace and un- detected cases, and a lifestyle that masks the presentation of the disease."
Ominously, an increasing number of cases are resistant to one or more of the four main drugs used to treat TB. "It threatens to make the disease untreatable," Mr Story said.
On visits to other towns and cities, including Oxford, Banbury and Luton, he regularly finds cases among the homeless. He also screens at London's jails, which have now been forced to begin routine X-rays of new inmates. "We've never gone into a prison without finding a case of active TB," he said.
Mr Story says his unit can do nothing more than crisis managing, treating those with the disease but doing nothing about latent infections. Health authorities in London admit that they are failing to control the outbreak, never mind eradicate it, and have plans for a more aggressive approach.
After rates plunged to negligible levels in the 1970s, TB services were wound down and Mr Story said that this has left Britain unprepared to deal with a resurgence of the disease. "People have taken their eye off the ball," he said. "They thought that TB would soon be eradicated. We've been flying by the seat of our pants."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/tuberculosis-is-having-a-resurgence-on-the-streets-of-london-since-it-was-nearly-eradicated-in-the-1970s/story-e6frg8y6-1226068504867

TUBERCULOSIS: UK cattle testing positive for tuberculosis to be DNA tagged

22 Apr 2011
Cattle testing positive for Bovine TB in the United Kingdom are to be DNA tagged to further strengthen controls preventing spread of the disease, says Defra.
Evidence is emerging that some cattle farmers in the South West and Midlands may have been illegally swapping cattle ear tags. That means they may have been retaining TB-positive animals in their herds and sending less productive animals to slaughter in their place.
Retaining cattle that test positive for TB on a farm increases the risk of spread of TB to other herds and wildlife.
To strengthen deterrents, from mid-April cattle testing positive for TB will immediately be tagged and a sample of its DNA retained by Animal Health. These samples will then be cross-checked at random, or where fraud is suspected, against the DNA of animals sent to slaughter.
Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said: “I am absolutely appalled any farmer would deliberately break the law in this way. The vast majority of farmers with TB in their herds are doing the right thing, and it’s reprehensible that anyone should be trying to get around the tough measures that are helping to control TB in cattle. Anyone doing this sort of thing will be caught and have the book thrown at them. “We are introducing this extra safeguard to minimise spread of this devastating disease to other herds and wildlife.”
The alleged evidence of fraud has emerged from an investigation instigated by Gloucestershire Trading Standards, which reviewed TB cattle sent to two slaughterhouses. Investigations are now ongoing there and at slaughterhouses in the South West and Midlands.
The Bovine TB Eradication Group for England (TBEG) said: “We are appalled at this emerging evidence of TB reactor fraud, and we strongly condemn any such behaviour. We urge the farming industry and the veterinary profession to continue to work together with the Government on the swift and decisive action announced today.
“We have given clear advice on what measures should be put in place quickly to tackle the problem. This suspected fraudulent behaviour by a few farmers should not be allowed to unfairly damage the reputation of the responsible majority or to undermine the TB control regime.”
http://www.vetsweb.com/news/uk-cattle-testing-positive-for-tuberculosis-to-be-dna-tagged-2153.html

TUBERCULOSIS: Foreigners blamed for TB cases rise in UK

The Government has blamed foreigners for a rise in cases of tuberculosis (TB) in Britain. Junior health minister Anne Milton told MPs that officials screening immigrants sometimes failed to pick up symptoms.
She said: "There's no doubt this is a complex problem and, in the last two decades, the increased instances have come from people who are not born in this country.
"The Home Office is currently reviewing the effectiveness of screening and running a pilot of TB screening pre-entry in areas of high instances.
"The problem is, it is not always detectable on entry into this country."
Responding to Linlithgow and East Falkirk Labour MP Michael Connarty, Ms Milton said: "We expect NHS organisations and their partners to ensure early detection, treatment completion and co-ordinated action to prevent and control TB.
"The department and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence have published supporting guidance, but also continue to support the charity TB Alert to raise public and professional awareness."
Mr Connarty said 61% of TB victims in London failed to complete treatment.
He added: "TB in the UK is only behind the level in Spain and Portugal - there were over 400,000 cases in the EU in 2009."
He called for more investment in preventing and treating TB in Britain's big cities, adding: "Most of the people who have TB are people who are not born in the UK."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hoRqpLJOVDxlIgg-an83rG4FYGng?docId=N0367901299600729288A