Old news, but another airing is no bad thing:
Leaves on the tracks, signal failures and strikes can all cause train delay headaches, but commuters in the Netherlands are facing railway havoc caused by badgers burrowing under the lines, with authorities struggling to tempt the protected animals out.
A few years ago a meeting was held for land owners in the Porthmadog area to hear the arguments for and against badger culls. At the end, the meeting chairman from one of the farming unions told the audience “We mustn’t get distracted by the science. We need a cull.”
Neither side has done the science correctly.
I would like to know how they test a badger for TB.
Most importantly do they retrieve any viable pathogen from the samples?
We need to look at how hepatitis in humans is dealt with.
They do an antibody test and if it is positive and the patient has no symptoms it shows that the patient has been exposed to the pathogen and generated the required immune cells. This means that no vaccine is needed. The vaccine needs two clinic visits and the antibody test is cheaper reducing it to one clinic visit.
If viable pathogen can’t be extracted from a badger the culls are a complete waste of resources.
It is much more likely to be spreading by feral deer or dung on the under sides of vets cars.