MADAM - Badger TB crisis solved?
One of the most surprising aspects of the current cattle TB crisis/badger cull or badger perturbation/vaccine debates is that no-one has noticed the exactly parallel answers re fox rabies/badger TB.
It is particularly surprising as DEFRA’s Dr Chris Cheeseman has studied urban foxes and rabies vaccine strategies but not transposed the ideas to Old Brock.
Badgers were nearly wiped out in Belgium, Luxembourg, etc, trying to stop the spread of rabies until it was discovered belatedly that they were not the main vector.
And shooting foxes did not help much either, since it merely encouraged further population perturbation and movement of juveniles seeking territories.
The answer was a rabies oral vaccine delivered in chicken head baits easily dispersed widely.
Only about 16 per cent of foxes are likely to be infectious with rabid saliva/bite wounds.
The badger cull might stop the spread of 16 per cent of badger TB too.
Maybe Team Badger should start spreading these facts about.
M Hancox
Stroud
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