#badgerculling

Badger Culling is a massive issue in the United Kingdom. For years, the government have endorsed initiatives to control populations in an attempt to combat the spread of Bovine TB.

Bovine TB can be catastrophic for livestock populations as it spreads easily, is an extremely unpleasant illness and is lethal. Either the disease kills the cows or the farmer does. 

The government obviously care most about the loss of revenue to farmers, and they have to be seen to be doing something about it. Unfortunately most of the actions required to reduce Bovine TB in the UK would cost the farmers revenue...so they blame the entire issue on the badgers. Who only make up a small percentage of the problem. 

Even if badger culling was effective, you’d barely be scratching the surface of the problem. But it isnt. Recent research by Dr. Matthew Silk has found culling badgers actually makes the spread of TB worse.

Why is this do you ask?

His theoretical models suggest that this is due to the social structure of wild badgers. Most badgers live in small groups (setts), and maybe one or two badgers of each sett will be affiliated with another group elsewhere (usually the males). To kill members of these setts leads to group dispersal, meaning the disease is spread further around and more quickly. Maintaining their current social structures keeps the disease /relatively/ contained. 

The question is, why are we still culling? To look busy? 

We need to be a. vaccinating our badgers not killing them, b. farming older ancestral lines of livestock that may have some form of resistance and c. farming livestock in smaller herds. 

 Sacrificing a bit of economic gain for the sake of morality and animal welfare seems like a fair price. Moreover the vaccinations will help the badgers in turn, as its a sorry death for them as well when they succumb to the disease. 

AND as we move toward a more climate friendly future, the world will have less room for cows anyway.