Culling badgers spreads TB
Posted on the 22nd October 2013
Scientists at the University of Exeter have studied badgers to see how their social interaction may spread bovine TB. They found that TB-infected badgers tended to be shunned within their social groups and were more isolated than uninfected badgers. This confines the disease. However, culling disrupts this stability, and infected badgers disperse, spreading the disease further. The study found that vaccination did not cause this ‘perturbation’ effect.
Read more in the Belfast Telegraph
Meanwhile, the Badger Trust has launched a legal challenge to stop the extension of culling in Gloucestershire. And the National Trust has written to Defra Minister, Owen Paterson, to question the ‘scientific rigour and credibility’ of the culls.
Brian May has called for the resignation of Owen Paterson.
Read more in the Yorkshire Post
And sign the petitions: