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Cover-up of Adverse Effects of Official Badger Cullings
mobile: (760) 291-7066
mobile: (760) 291-7066
(dialing from Ireland... 001 + 7602917066)
(dialing from Ireland... 001 + 7602917066)
Sent to Irish Veterinary Journal in time for deadline given me for inclusion in September edition:
Dear Editor,
The Four-areas Project [2] data suggest that the initial cull in Donegal's Removal Area and subsequent efforts to prevent badgers from entering/re-entering there were more efficient than those in the other three Removal Areas, and the likelihood of having a major TB breakdown in Donegal's Removal Area was 29 times greater in the pre-Study period than during the FaP.
The Study's [1] authors erroneously and unwisely compared the detection of TB in one of the four badgers to an overall incidence of 26.1% for the other three Reference Areas combined. In fact, that 26.1% figure was the overall rate amongst those 218 badgers from all four Reference Areas which were subjected to full post-mortem examination. That incidence, being 34.54% higher than the level reported for the combined Removal Areas, is consistent with a Perturbation Effect.
I understand that, whilst every isolate of M. bovis from every reactor animal slaughtered in Donegal's Removal, Reference and Buffer areas during the FaP was to be strain-typed, no (published) attempt may have been made to strain-type any M. bovis from that single badger reported to have been found to have been infected in Donegal's Reference Area in November, 2002 - potentially the most significant badger ever to have been culled in Ireland or the UK.
In a 2007 government press release [3] we read: "The Minister rejected the finding in the Report that the spread of bovine TB in Ireland is largely due to cattle to cattle transmission. Ms Coughlan said that research in Ireland has shown that cattle to cattle transmission is not a major factor in the spread of TB…"
The Minister misleadingly chose to compare the number of reactors removed in 1998 with the figure for 2006. The former was roughly 54% above the figure for 1997, which had been similar to the four preceding years’ levels.
"A national programme of strategic badger removal was not uniformly established throughout Ireland until towards the end of the 1990s (that is, approximately from year one of the study)." [2] That study began in 1997.
There is reason to believe that a Perturbation Effect became widespread amongst the Irish national herd in 1998, the results of which continue to this day.
For links to complete references, please visit http://members.cox.net/twinsoul or twinsoul@cox.net
Tom Kelly.
References:
1: Olea-Popelka, F., Butler, D., Lavin, D. P. T., McGrath, G., O’Keeffe, J.,
Kelton, D., Berke, O., More, S. and Martin W. (2006)
A case study of bovine tuberculosis in an area of County Donegal,
Ireland. Irish Veterinary Journal 59: 683-690.
2: Griffin, J. M., More, S. J., Clegg, T. A., Collins J. D., O’Boyle, I.,
Williams, D. H., Kelly, G.E., Costello, E., D., Sleeman, P., O’Shea, F., Duggan, M., Murphy, J. and
Lavin, D. P. T. Tuberculosis in cattle:
the results of the four-area project. (2005) Irish Veterinary Journal 58: 629-636
3: Minister Coughlan rejects Badger Trust / Badgerwatch Ireland Report. Irish Government (DAFF) Press Release, 14 May, 2007