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Vaccinating badgers more effective than culls in stopping bovine TB, study finds (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A large-scale vaccination programme could help eradicate bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in badgers, according to a first-of-its-kind study with “really promising” results for cattle farmers, whose herds have been devastated by the disease.

Over four years, researchers vaccinated 265 badgers across 12 farms in Cornwall. They found the percentage of badgers testing positive for bTB fell from 16% to zero.

“It’s the best result you could get from a small study,” said the lead researcher, Prof Rosie Woodroffe, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). “The results are really promising but we’d want to see it replicated over a larger area.”

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is great to see, also feels like a common sense approach? We don't cull humans to get rid of COVID, so why would we apply that logic to trying to stop bovine TB?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

It was always common sense, but farmers don't like it because it's more expensive and time consuming than just culling them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

We don’t cull humans to get rid of COVID

And we also have difficulty convincing some to get the vac. Those kill others by spreading COVID.

This is very much the same question farmers face. They are legally required to kill herds of cows. If TB is discovered in the herd.

So it is very fair to answer the question of how the hell do we ensure the vac is applied to enough Badgers in the area.