Fears of bovine tuberculosis is prompting soaring numbers of cattle across Greater Manchester and beyond in the North West to be quarantined.
A frightening increase in the number of northern herds under disease restrictions due to a threat of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) was shown in statistics released from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) earlier this month.
Since 2008, Greater Manchester herd numbers affected by the disease have remained low, typically alternating between zero and one.
However, from May 2012 this figure has risen steadily to seven herds placed under restriction in response to the threat of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) this June.
Lancashire and Cheshire have also seen an alarming climb in the number of herds affected, rising from five to 23 restricted herds in Lancashire and from 80 to 155 in Cheshire.
Meanwhile, badger culls began in the south of England including Somerset and Gloucestershire earlier this month in a bid to stop the disease’s spread.
An AHVLA spokesperson has said that Greater Manchester remains a low incidence area for bovine TB, with only three cattle herds of approximately 350 deemed Officially TB Free Withdrawn (OTFW) by the agency in the last six months.
All of these cases came as a result of inadvertent infection from cattle brought in from high risk areas, despite the rigorous annual testing and movement restrictions designed to prevent the spread of bTB from herds that have experienced a recent outbreak.
“There is no evidence of bovine TB infection in wildlife in the Greater Manchester area,” the spokesperson said.
Even so, Jack Reedy from The Badger Trust expressed concern for the fate of the much scapegoated animals in the North West.
He said: “It is of course a very distressing economic problem for farmers, and badgers are particularly susceptible to the disease, but killing badgers would make no meaningful contribution to halting the spread of bovine TB amongst cattle.”
Mr Reedy also highlighted Lancashire’s historical problems with bTB. He said: “Lancashire was a bTB hotspot 70 years ago, towards the end of the Second World War, and the disease was eradicated then without killing any badgers.”
This new information comes at a time of nationwide distress on behalf of England’s badgers, but there is also widespread worry for the future of UK farmers.
Adam Briggs, county adviser for the National Farmers’ Union, said: “What we need to do, and what we are doing, is test as much as we can, and this is possibly why we’re picking up one or two more cases.
“But this is only the case in cattle in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, where there is little evidence of bTB spreading to the wildlife. This is not the case in Cheshire.
“bTB isn’t going to come to Greater Manchester in a badger, it’s going to come on a cattle wagon, and this is where our focus needs to be.
“We do have concerns, however, that a well-meaning person will take badgers from infected areas like Gloucestershire and release them around Lancashire or Greater Manchester, in which case it’s a whole different ball game.”
Outside of the culling zone in the southwest, where farmers have been permitted to slaughter 5,000 badgers in an effort to prevent further infection of their herds, councils like Shropshire and Cheshire are following a policy of vaccination.
An e-petition to stop the badger cull was instigated by Queen guitarist Dr Brian May CBE who recently apologised for likening the slaughter to ‘genocide’.
Reaching 303,905 signatures before closing earlier this month, the petition reached the attention of the Leader of the House of Commons and has been forwarded to the Backbench Business Committee. The debate continues.
Image courtesy of David Clare via Flickr, with thanks.
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